-Hindustan Times The Modi government is looking to address a worrying agrarian crisis with a set of schemes and Budget provisions aimed at ramping up the larger rural economy, rather than just the farm sector, people familiar with the development told HT. Budget 2015-2016 is likely to provide for a more effective Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayin Yojana, a flagship scheme announced last year to create irrigation infrastructure, with substantially higher allocations. The...
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‘The lived experience of urban poverty is more brutal than rural poverty’
-The Hindu Bengaluru: Is Bengaluru in danger of becoming a city that is divided along the lines of class and caste? Terming today’s urban reality an apartheid city, activist and former bureaucrat Harsh Mander has said the perpetuation of caste, class and the neoliberal ‘greed is good’ motto, have made the middle class one of the most uncaring communities the world over. And what happens when the divide enters the classroom? “Rohith...
More »Bassi for Information Commissioner: 'It will be a sad day for democracy' -Satish Nandgaonkar
-The Hindu Mumbai: Ex-Chief Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi says a transparent procedure should be followed in the selection process. Alarmed at speculation that Delhi Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi could be appointed Information Commissioner in the Central Information Commission, RTI activist and former CIC Shailesh Gandhi on Thursday shot off a letter to the Centre objecting to the appointment. In a letter to Cabinet Secretary PK Sinha, Mr. Gandhi said: “There are news reports...
More »‘Hike Budget outlay for all agri-related departments’
-The Hindu Business Line New Delhi: Several organisations and individuals have sought higher Budget outlays for all departments dealing with the agriculture sector if the Centre is really serious about farmers’ welfare. “Budget 2015-16 was a serious disappointment in that it actually cut down allocations for Ministry of Agriculture to levels less than 2011-12, i.e., five years earlier! (see table) …. It is clear that farmers’ welfare added to the Ministry’s...
More »Obstacles to cooperative federalism -Pradeep S Mehta
-The Hindu Business Line The bureaucracy has been unable to take it forward, thanks to its reluctance to share information and ideas Having been a chief minister for long, Narendra Modi as Prime Minister has rightly put his weight behind cooperative and competitive federalism. In March last year, I had elaborated in this column the relationship between the two in the context of development and growth in India in an article ‘What sort...
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