-The Indian Express Social audits should not be judged by state response alone. They create awareness about rights and create engaged citizens. This article is in response to Farzana Afridi's ‘Social audit isn't enough' (IE, January 22). Social audits have been enshrined as one of the transparency and accountability tools in the MGNREGA. Such accountability mechanisms aim to strengthen the otherwise weak institutions of delivery as they engage the beneficiaries in the...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Raising doubts on the genuineness of the government's plan expenditure, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has written to the finance ministry saying its data provided on schemes worth over Rs 3 lakh crore for 2012-13 "points to serious deficiencies". The auditor said a detailed scrutiny had revealed that government in several cases was giving post-dated sanctions - in some instances sanctions were granted by the...

A new report on India's housing sector confirms with facts and figures what has been suspected all along: that despite growing demand for affordable housing, supply side responses have been weak and sluggish. This means even though the housing sector can directly impact employment and income generation, and has multiple forward and backward linkages with various industries, it needs innovative ideas, pro-poor thinking and policy stimulus. (See link below for...

-The Hindu     Policies being pursued in India are based on the growth-at-any-cost model. The poor and the enviroment suffer while the corporates and organised sectors reap the benefits The Aam Aadmi Party, having won the trust vote, is now in the saddle in Delhi. By announcing several measures to benefit Delhiites, it had already impacted the political discourse in the nation. The established political parties are trying to follow suit. Why did...

-The Hindu     Move to push this year's expenditure to next fiscal is intended to keep the fiscal deficit within target The Finance Minister of the next government post-elections will have to pay the price for the United Progressive Alliance's (UPA) subsidy and social spend. The Finance Ministry plans to book in next financial year, 2014-15, the expenditure that will be incurred on subsidies during the remaining months of the current fiscal (January-March). ...