-Down to Earth The Centre has promised more money to panchayats, but there is many a slip between cup and lip Like last year, the budget for the financial year 2016-17 also had a much-desirable provision. Last year, the government had increased the share of states in the Central divisible pool by 10 per cent after accepting the recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission. This year, the government has accepted another big...

-The Hindu Business Line The Economic Survey’s efforts to link ‘excess’ labour regulation to this practice do not stand up to scrutiny The Economic Survey has unconvincingly linked the practise of contract labour to an excess of labour regulation — what it calls ‘regulatory cholesterol’. The Survey alleges that to negotiate the regulatory “cholesterol” in labour law firms resort to contract labour. This is a contestable view. According to the Survey, extensive use...

-Business Standard While allocations to several social sector schemes have been increased, concerns about the direction of the funds being ploughed remain The health and education sectors have trudged along the last two years awaiting direction that would be set through new policies the National Democratic Alliance government promised. In the absence of these guiding documents, most observers have been left to read the intermittent policy decisions like tea-leaves to guess the...

-PTI New Delhi: Considering the “phenomenal” growth of e-waste in the country, the Centre today notified the revised e-waste management rules 2016 under which improper management of such refuse leading to environment damage will invite financial penalty. While CFL and other mercury lamps have been brought within the ambit of the e-waste management rules 2016, a “Deposit Refund Scheme” has been introduced under which the producer of any computer, mobile phone or...

-Livemint.com As the world celebrates World Water Day on 22 March, the situation in India is grim New Delhi: As the world celebrates World Water Day on 22 March, the situation in India is grim. In Maharashtra’s parched Latur district, the collector has imposed Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code, banning the assembly of more than five people near tanker-filling points, public wells, tanker-plying routes and storage tanks. The ban, which...