-Down to Earth The local administration in Jharkhand is undermining the decentralised scheme, created to enhance livelihood, manage natural resources and improve basic infrastructure in rural areas Yojna Banao Abhiyan (YBA) was an outcome of two government programmes – Mission Antodaya (Intensive Participatory Planning Exercise (IPPE-II)) of the Ministry of Rural Development, and Gram Panchayat Development Planning of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj. It gave an opportunity to newly elected gram panchayats...

-Newsclick.in The ruling party has won just 18% of municipal council wards and 12% of municipal panchayat wards. Contrary to the euphoria being exhibited by the mainstream media and BJP, results of the UP civic body elections are not a one sided victory of the ruling BJP. If anything, these results coming so close to the state Assembly elections held earlier this year, show the rapid disenchantment taking place with the BJP...

-Scroll.in At the heart of the problem is a discrepancy between two laws on rights for Adivasis to the bamboo growing on their traditional forestlands. Across the world, taxonomists have classified bamboo as a grass. But under Indian law, it was treated as a tree. This definition has long given state forest departments monopolistic control over the valuable natural resource. On November 23, the central government loosened this grip by amending the...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Politicians of various stripes have started to raise red flags about a provision in a bill that the Narendra Modi government intends to move in the Lok Sabha in the upcoming winter session, which could theoretically allow beleaguered banks and financial institutions to scoop up depositors' money to stop them from going bust. It is called a "bail-in" - a concept coined during the European banking crisis of...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: Fruit juices, cereals, cereal-based foods and bakery products will soon have standards for fortification. Safe foods will have a logo of declaration set by national food regulator, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), CII National Committee on Nutrition chairperson Vinita Bali told ET. The committee, which includes large packaged food companies like Kraft Heinz, Britannia, ITC, Kellogg, Cargill and GSK Consumer, is working with FSSAI...