-Economic and Political Weekly Naresh Chandra Saxena (naresh.saxena@gmail.com) was posted at the IAS academy for eight years and trained several batches of the IAS. He retired as secretary, Planning Commission in 2002. The decision to recruit experts from the open market in CERTain departments at the level of joint secretaries is not enough to radically professionalise the civil service. Internal specialisation must be promoted by insisting on stable tenure in the states...

-National Herald He fears for his life and safety of his family, admits the activist from Mumbai, explaining his reluctance to speak to the media and appear on TV. Visiting the national capital for filing his petition before the Supreme Court, Manoranjan S Roy resisted attempts to drag him to TV studios. Life for him had changed ever since his RTI applications revealed discrepancies between the supply and deployment of Electronic...

-TheWire.in Incorrectly listed as 'Korwas' instead of 'Pahari Korwas' on caste CERTificates, members of the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group continue to face roadblocks to schemes, subsidised healthcare and government jobs. Surguja (Chattisgarh): Sanak Sai, a nine-year-old Pahari Korwa from Chhattisgarh’s Govindpur village, met with an accident on May 28 while riding a bicycle. Suffering from a fractured jaw and a few broken teeth, he was referred to the district hospital for a...

-Livemint.com Odisha is a front-runner in women’s land ownership, much of it owing to government policies from the 1980s. But has ownership led to empowerment? Surrounded by sun-drenched paddy fields interspersed with jackfruit and banana trees, Sanakusupadu is a hamlet in Odisha’s tribal-dominated district of Rayagada. Here, almost every married woman owns land. No matter how small the holding, land documents of the 62 households in this village bear the names of the...

-TheWire.in Paschimbanga Griha Paricharika Samiti, a Kolkata-based workers' organisation was granted a trade union CERTificate from the state government. New Delhi: The exploitation and abuse of domestic workers has been prevalent in India for many years now. In addition to being overworked and underpaid, domestic workers are often ill-treated and in some cases, even physically attacked and sexually harassed. The efforts of Paschim Banga Griha Paricharika Samiti (PGPS-West Bengal Domestic Workers Society), a...