India has witnessed many fiery debates on poverty estimates. Equally contentious has been the issue of inequality. Now a new report on exclusion offers a fresh perspective on poverty, inequality and social justice. (See below a summary of the report) Based on data and knowledge resources available in the public domain, India Exclusion Report 2013-14 highlights the systematic discrimination faced by women, Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), Muslims, persons with...

-The Business Standard     Foreign direct investment in the NGO sector is, in fact, no different from the cross-holdings and the FDI web of the corporate world  ClimateWorks, one of the two international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) recently restricted by the National Democratic Alliance government from funding Greenpeace India Society in India, also funds another NGO, Global International, which, till recently, was headed in India by Union Environment and Forests minister Prakash Javadekar. When...

-The Times of India AHMEDABAD: The chief information commissioner (CIC) D Rajagopalan has asked the Gujarat high court to furnish information under the Right To Information Act pertaining to its system for monitoring the lower judiciary. The commission ordered so after the HC had refused to part with the information on the grounds that it wasn't bound to reveal these details under the information laws. The applicant, Kalpeshkumar Gupta, filed a query under...

-The Indian Express   As per UIDAI records, 630 million Indians have already been issued Aadhaar cards. The Department of Information Technology has called a meeting of state government secretaries this week for a status check on Aadhaar. The meeting is significant because of the question marks on the continuation of the scheme under the NDA government. Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week scrapped the cabinet committee on Unique Identification Authority of India which...

-The Times of India   CHENNAI: NGOs across the country are feeling the heat with an Intelligence Bureau report accusing many of them, including one run by Tamil Nadu-based anti-nuclear activist S P Udayakumar, of receiving foreign aid to instigate agitations and stall developmental projects in the country. For many years now, TN has been recording the second highest foreign aid receipts by NGOs, next only to Delhi. According to the Union home...