-IANS The former PRIme minister said both demonetisation and GST have impacted the informal sector, which accounts for 90% of employment. New Delhi: Both demonetisation and GST have affected India’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth adversely, former PRIme Minister Manmohan Singh said on Monday. “Both demonetisation and GST have had some impact on GDP,” Manmohan Singh, who has earlier said the Indian economy has been running on only “one engine” of public spending,...

-Press release from People's Budget Initiative (PBI)/ Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA) New Delhi: The coalition -- People’s Budget Initiative (PBI) with a membership of diverse organisations working across different sectors in the country, organized a national convention on pressing issues (such as budgetary allocations for social sectors, transparency etc.) deserving a closer scrutiny and a larger public debate. The two-day workshop entitled ‘Civil Society Budget Work and Governance...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Women and child development (WCD) minister Maneka Gandhi today suggested spreading awareness among schoolchildren so that they can complain about sexual harassment under a central law. Maneka made the suggestions in a meeting with HRD minister Prakash Javadekar held against the backdrop of the murder of a seven-year-old boy in Gurgaon's Ryan International School. The two leaders discussed several measures, including sensitising children to file complaints under the...

-The Indian Express Cash transfers instead of food has been widely debated with several criticising it for not being an actual substitute for take-home rations, which is a mix of cereals, fats, sugar and pulses, with added micronutrients. In a major policy shift, the Ministry of Woman and Child Development (WCD) has prepared a proposal to substitute take-home rations, given in aanganwadis for infants under three and pregnant and lactating mothers,...

-The Hindu There must be consensus among major political parties around vital issues like health Barely a month before the deaths of children in Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, allegedly due to the disruption of oxygen supply in the BRD Medical College, the U.P. Health Minister had addressed a consultation in Lucknow organised by the Observer Research Foundation. He admitted that U.P.’s health system was in the “ICU”, and said he was trying...