-TheWire.in The current, complex payments systems employed by the government must give way to simple, decentralised systems to ensure greater accountability as empower local governing bodies. The Union government’s approach to payments under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) has been a ridiculous joke, played on the workers who wait for their hard-earned money for a long time. Many do not get their payments at all, owing to various local malpractices....

-Science.thewire.in * In the near-term, the IPCC report reaffirms that India can no longer afford to ignore the very real developmental challenge that climate change poses at home. * In a significant development, the government’s statement contains a clear and welcome acknowledgement of the relationship between climate change and extreme events. * To embark on a low-carbon development pathway, however, India will need an institutional architecture with a more strategic bent. “It is unequivocal...

-Newsclick.in The government’s brazen class bias is crystal clear, as it gives away national assets built with public money to its favourite capitalists, together with tax breaks. Junior Minister for Rural Development in the Central government, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, ruled out in Parliament any increase in the amount of monthly pension given by the Centre to the elderly under the National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP). The amount currently being given to each...

-The Hindu There is rock solid scientific evidence to demand the cancellation of many upcoming and approved hydel projects In normal circumstances, when a mistake is understood and suffered, one tends to learn from it and not repeat it. Unfortunately, this does not hold true in the case of the policy makers who are bent upon permitting projects and large-scale infrastructure in the already fragile and vulnerable Ganga-Himalayan basin. Recurrent disasters in...

-The Hindu States seek transparency in GST data. GST collections have crossed ₹1 lakh crore in eleven of the last 12 months, with the government attributing the trend to a rapid economic recovery and improved compliance levels, but economists are unable to analyse these tax numbers as critical data points are no longer shared by the government. Until December 2020, when monthly GST collections were released, the official statement from the Finance Ministry...