-Press release by NREGA Sangharsh Morcha dated 1 April, 2018 Hours after NREGA Sangharsh Morcha wrote an open letter (please click here to access) to the Rural Development Minister demanding notification of revised MGNREGA wage rates for 2018-19, the Ministry issued the employment guarantee act wage rates for the new financial year.   Wage rates have not increased for some of the poorest states of the country – Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar...

-The Indian Express The Finance Ministry directed smaller PSBs to cut their corporate loan exposure to 25 per cent of their risk-weighted assets over the medium term and focus more on retail lending. Corporate loans corner the lion’s share of rising bad loans in public sector banks while retail loans have a far superior track record when it comes to timely repayment, according to the latest available Reserve Bank of India...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Centre has said it is examining the "desirability of filing a review petition" against last week's Supreme Court order diluting the SC-ST Act, ending days of dithering amid mounting pressure from allies and Dalit BJP parliamentarians. "I have instructed my ministry to examine the desirability of filing a review in this case. Appropriate actions are being taken," Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said at a news...

-The Hindu The obsession for a male child in many parts of Asia can be changed. South Korea shows the way On the Vietnam Airlines flight to Hanoi, I did the opposite of what I usually do at take off — loosened my seat belt fully before I could buckle it. On most other flights I have to tighten the belt to make up for the passenger who occupied the seat before...

-The Hindu Chief Justice Misra asks why people preferring anonymity are also compelled to part with their personal data to access services. The government has assured the Supreme Court that Aadhaar is not a “fly-by-night effort to score some brownie points” and personal data collected from millions of people is safe from breach in storage facilities barricaded behind five-feet thick walls. Appearing before a Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice of India Dipak...