-Press Release by National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) New Delhi: Calling this year’s union budget ‘just an exercise in manipulation of numbers,’ veteran activist Medha Patkar asked, “When the major decisions like the demonetisation and GST are taken between two budgets then what’s the relevance of the Budget?,” at a panel discussion on the analysis of this year’s union budget with a special focus on Handloom, Fisheries, Dalits, Adivasis, Forest,...

-Press Release by National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) The Delhi Solidarity Group (DSG) has come out with a critique of the Union Budget 2018-19. Please click here to access the report by DSG entitled: Issues of Marginalized Sections: Analysis from the perspectives of Handloom, Fisheries, Dalits, Adivasis, Forest, Agriculture, Banking and Financing, Urban Housing, Rural Development, Land & Higher Education. The following civil society organizations have contributed for the preparation...

-Business Today Social sector spending and investments in infrastructure development could be the highlights of the forthcoming Union Budget 2018-19, credit rating agency ICRA forecasts. It expects increase in budgetary allocations for social infrastructure and social security spending, such as NREGA (rural job security), food subsidy (food security), insurance schemes and welfare pensions. Larger allocations for infrastructure related to cold chains, etc., considered to boost the agricultural sector and the rural...

-Down to Earth Although farmers vote at least as much, if not more than industrial workers or urban middle classes, elections are not fought around farmers' issues Elections are about numbers. Democratic politics is about stitching together a majority. So, the larger a group, the bigger is its “vote bank”, and greater is its electoral clout. A social group that constitutes a majority can therefore dictate its terms in an electoral democracy....

-IANS So far 77 Smart Cities, including 11 of the Round 3 cities, had formed their Special Purpose Vehicle New Delhi: An investment of Rs 1,91,155 crore has been proposed for the 90 cities under the Smart Cities project, Urban Development Minister Hardeep Puri said on Monday, a day after Congress President Rahul Gandhi said only seven per cent of funds for the project had been used. An official statement issued on Monday...