-The Hindu All govt departs and ministries have been asked to provide electronic options for all payments and receipts by March 31, 2016. The Prime Minister’s Office has set an ambitious target to shift at least 90% of all government transactions that involve payments or receipts from citizens and businesses to electronic or paperless mode by the end of 2016, replacing the use of cash, demand drafts, cheques and challans in government...

-The Indian Express The juvenile justice bill, to be debated by the Rajya Sabha today, confuses revenge with justice Our Parliament is on the verge of committing a heinous crime against its youngest citizens as it discusses the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Bill, 2014 in the Rajya Sabha today. If it passes this bill, it would be placing a sword of Damocles over every Indian born after 1997, including...

-The Hindu The manner in which crucial laws are being amended will end up eroding rights that have deep consequences on the lives of our children and us as citizens of a thriving democracy. All because the state hasn’t been able to deliver what it was mandated to do. The last few months have seen an alarming trend of crucial laws being amended, or sought to be amended, in a manner that...

-Economic and Political Weekly Why has pulse production stagnated despite measures to boost production being well known? This season, the prices of pulses (dals) have been on fire. According to the Price Monitoring Cell of the Department of Consumer Affairs, Government of India, the average retail price of red gram (tuar) doubled from around Rs 80 a kg in March 2015 to Rs 150–Rs 160 a kg in November 2015. What could...

-The Hindu Chennai: Official data from the Metro Water for the last 20 days suggest that the high precipitation and reservoir outflows on November 16 and December 1 respectively were primarily responsible for swelling the rivers. As the flood water recedes in Chennai, serious questions are being raised about reservoir management in the city. Much of the flooding and subsequent waterlogging was a consequence of the outflows from major reservoirs into swollen...