-Frontline.in Interview with Aruna Roy. ARUNA ROY is a well-known social and political activist. A former Indian Administrative Service officer, she resigned from the IAS in 1975 and has since worked with the most oppressed in society. Aruna Roy’s observation on government service is indicative of her future concerns: “Everyone calls it an elite service; I always felt the discourse should be a bit better than what it was. I was shocked...

-Scroll.in Full-day, quality childcare can make a crucial difference in India’s fight against malnutrition, and can possibly enhance incomes of working women. Savitaben is a tobacco worker in Rasnol village, Gujarat. She has two young children under five years of age, and every morning she leaves them in a crèche run by the Self-Employed Women’s Association or SEWA, a trade union of over 15 lakh poor, self-employed women workers. The children are...

-Huffingtonpost.in Secrecy in amending the RTI Act as well as in the appointment of Information Commissioners in the CIC reveal the government's intention to destroy the spirit of the transparency law. With over 6 million information applications filed every year, the Indian Right to Information (RTI) Act is the most extensively used transparency legislation globally. The law has empowered ordinary citizens to hold the government accountable. It has been used for a...

-The Times of India Blog Prakash Singh, former IPS officer who also headed the Border Security Force, dealt with naxalism in its early stages. He continues to research the movement. In a conversation with Sugandha Indulkar, he shares his idea of urban naxalism. * What is urban naxalism? Urban naxalism, in simplest terms, implies naxalism as practised in urban areas by different shades of intellectuals – lawyers, journalists, writers, doctors, professors or people...

-The Hindu Business Line New Delhi: Widespread privatisation of public goods in many societies is systematically eliminating human rights protections and further marginalising those living in poverty, according to a new report, released by the United Nations (UN). The 25-page report by the UN is eye-opening in the light of Indian government think-tank Niti Aayog releasing Guidelines for Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) for tackling Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) in government-run district hospitals. Niti Aayog's...