-The Business Standard   NC Saxena, a former member of the National Advisory Council believes that the regulatory regime in the states continues to be oppressive. In an e-mailed interview with Aditi Phadnis, Saxena says that the fundamental problem in India is the low tax-GDP ratio and neither the last government nor the current one seems interested in increasing revenues. Edited excerpts: * The new government appears to be watering down a lot...

-CNN-IBN New Delhi: Giving up convention of appointing the senior-most Information Commissioner as the Chief of the Central Information Commission, the Centre on Friday advertised the position inviting applications from the general public. The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), the nodal ministry for RTI matters, has invited applications from the people in a given format before November 24. According to the Act, the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) shall be a person of...

-Outlook Prime Minister Narendra Modi today pitched for revamping urban governance while linking it to the 'Digital India' mission and 'Swachh Bharat' campaign. Chairing a meeting on urban development here, he said programmes should be implemented in close consultation and coordination with states, generally based on the PPP model and a special module on urban governance should be a part of the IAS officers` training. "The Prime Minister said revamping urban governance should...

-Livemint The proposed changes in MNREGA will undermine the very reason for which the Act was passed The present central government of India rode high into the office, promising development with good governance. This certainly was a welcome signal to organizations like ours working at grassroots who experience, day after day, that good-intentioned social policies get stuck in ill-designed programmes. There is a hugE Governance deficit in the delivery of social development...

-The Indian Express Moves to dilute labour-material ratio in MGNREGA and focus exclusively on select backward blocks will adversely impact rural poor. Before the general elections, free-market fundamentalists had lobbied fiercely to reshape so-called wasteful social-sector expenditures. Primary among their targets was the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which, according to them, should become an unconditional cash transfer scheme. Post-elections, the late Gopinath Munde's espousal of the MGNREGA went...