-The Indian Express Of the Rs 80,310 crore the 26 states allotted to SCSP schemes in 2012-13, when the UPA government was in power at the Centre, Rs 61,480 crore was spent. WITH various political parties staking claim to the legacy of Dr B R Ambedkar on his 125th birth anniversary, the latest annual report by the Scheduled Caste Commission has found that almost all states have failed to honour their budgetary...
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Public health’s in the infirmary -Imrana Qadeer and Sourindra Mohan Ghosh
-The Hindu Business Line The priority for this government is to promote the medical care market, not ensure universal healthcare for the majority Those at the helm of policymaking in the country have been, for some time, strongly advocating austerity as the principle for public expenditure policies, particularly for the social sectors. Arvind Panagariya, the vice-chairperson of the NITI Aayog, suggests that “for just three-quarters of a per cent of the GDP”, 0.76...
More »At The Margins -Lola Nayar
-Outlook Is the devolution of national funds to states really worth the praise? * Share of the states in the divisible pool of central taxes has risen from 32% to 42% for five years till 2019-20 * Rise in untied funds transferred is accompanied by cut in Central assistance for state plan spending * Limited ability of the poorer states to expand their fiscal space with own revenue collection * Funds for rural development...
More »Who stole my broadband? -Thomas K Thomas & Pratim Ranjan Bose
-The Hindu Business Line BusinessLine goes to villages, including those visited in 2014, to understand the progress of the ambitious National Optical Fibre Network. Unused infrastructure and low awareness tell a story of missed links In one corner of the Ramnagar village panchayat office, in Panisagar block of Tripura, is a defunct four-year-old computer. The machine, connected with a 10 mbps broadband line was supposed to bring digital services to this remote...
More »A lesson in hidden agendas -Rohit Dhankar
-The Hindu The assault on the Right to Education Act and government schools is motivated. It is definitely not in the interest of India’s children, especially those from less privileged households The public education system (PES) has for long been under fire. It is being painted as non-functioning, wasteful and un-improvable. The Right to Education Act (RTE) was designed to improve this system. Therefore, it is natural that the RTE will also...
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