-TheWire.in While the announcement and achievement are significant, it must be noted that electrification of villages does not translate into electrification of households and is certainly no guarantee for power availability. New Delhi: After missing the initial deadline of May 2017, the Narendra Modi government announced on Sunday morning that the electrification of all inhabited villages in India has been completed. While the announcement and achievement are significant, it is still largely symbolic...

-Livemint.com Farmers continue to be vulnerable to frequent episodes of losses that neither the state nor the markets have been able to mitigate The dramatic long march to Mumbai involving thousands of distressed farmers on 12 March is a remarkable feat of peaceful protest against the state, given its apathy towards farmers’ distress as well as its failures in safeguarding tribal land rights. However, what is surprisingly missing in this poignant narrative...

-Livemint.com Latest data as per the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana and the Saubhagya scheme shows inconsistencies in the number of rural households in the country The opposition has increasingly questioned the government’s record in rural electrification and alleged frequent shifting of goalposts. For example, the deadline for electrifying all villages now stands at May 2018, after missing the May 2017 target. While available data shows that the Narendra Modi government...

-TheWire.in/ Business Standard The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation data analysed by researchers showed that in some cases, members have received contributions even before their joining date. New Delhi: A presentation made by State Bank of India chief economist Soumya Kanti Ghosh and Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore professor Pulak Ghosh to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in January captured how subscriber data is shoddily maintained by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) –...

-TheWire.in The Right to Information Act has not been implemented in letter and spirit, which is why the number of RTI appeals and complaints with the Central Information Commission is growing. The Narendra Modi government has made an oft-repeated commitment to promote transparency and participatory decision-making processes to contain the scourge of corruption in public life. While the Right to Information (RTI) Act is used for promoting free flow of information, the...