Quite opposite to the top-down model of budgeting, the newly elected Aam Aadmi Party-led Government in Delhi has decided to go for a 'citizen-centric' budget planning at 'mohalla'-level for the fiscal year 2015-16. Drawing lessons from the success stories of participatory budgeting conducted at municipal-level in cities like Porto Alegre (Brazil), the AAP-led Delhi Government has decided to launch this form of decentralized budgeting on a pilot basis in a...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Rape centres cut, 660 to 36 -Ananya Sengupta
-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government has downsized its first large-scale initiative for women, trimming the plan for a rape crisis centre in every district to one centre per state and Union territory. Union women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi had suggested 660 Nirbhaya Centres - one each in the 640 districts and another 20 in the six metros. Now, there will be just 36, their locations decided by...
More »Days before Pillai row, Environment told Coal: stop Mahan block auction -Jay Mazoomdaar
-The Indian Express Three weeks before Greenpeace activist Priya Pillai was stopped from travelling to London where she was to speak on the alleged violation of forest rights of tribals in the Mahan coal block area of Madhya Pradesh, the Ministry of Environment and Forests asked the Ministry of Coal not to auction the block as it is "located in inviolate forest area". Pillai was stopped at Delhi airport on January 11...
More »Food insecurity and statistical fog -Jean Drèze
-The Hindu The implementation of the National Food Security Act is mired in apathy and confusion. A grave injustice is being done to millions of people who live on the margin of subsistence. It is not too late to remove the roadblocks, but this requires a sense of urgency An odd silence has surrounded the National Food Security Act (NFSA) in the last few months - as if food insecurity were a...
More »Changing landscape -Jitendra
-Down to Earth Land devoted to non-agricultural use has increased three-fold since Independence. It is set to increase further and faster, according to this article extracted from the latest State of India's Environment report, published by Down To Earth and Centre for Science and Environment In 2014, India was expected to bring down widespread land conflicts. This is because the country got a new land acquisition law in November 2013 after more...
More »