-The Indian Express The Planning Commission has criticised the Railways for failing to attract private sector participation in its multi-crore infrastructure projects and has called for overhauling its management to allow “relevant experts” to be part of its decision making process. In its comments to a recent Cabinet note moved by the Railways to promote participatory models for rail connectivity and capacity augmentation, the commission argued that for the past two years...

-The Hindu SANGAREDDY: The crop fields of the women of Deccan Development Society (DDS), an NGO working for the last 25 years in Medak district, would be soon recognised as biodiversity heritage sites by the Government of India. This was announced by Dr. P. Balakrishna, chairman, National Biodiversity Authority (NBD), after formally launching 14th mobile biodiversity festival at Ippapally village in Zaheerabad mandal of Medak district on Monday. This would be the...

-The Guardian The global application of a fraudulent economic theory brought the west to its knees. Yet for those in power, it offers riches How they must bleed for us. In 2012, the world's 100 richest people became $241 billion richer. They are now worth $1.9 trillion: just a little less than the entire output of the United Kingdom. This is not the result of chance. The rise in the fortunes of the...

-Down to Earth Town's municipal body asked to first address objections filed by residents The decision of the municipal authorities of Khandwa, a medium-sized town in Madhya Pradesh, to hand over water supply services to a private company, has been stalled. The Consumer Forum of Khandwa stayed the notification for water supply privatisation on December 31 and asked the city’s civic body to address all the objections raised by residents against the...

-The Business Standard Reetika Khera Professor, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi* “Aadhaar is being made de facto compulsory for welfare schemes. With two-thirds without Aadhaar, they are bound to be denied entitlements” There are three components of the government’s direct benefit transfer scheme — computerisation, extending banking services and linking the benefits with Aadhaar. The real game-changers are the first two, whereas Aadhaar-enabled transfers carry the risk of excluding current beneficiaries. The Central government has...