-Press statement by NREGA Sangharsh Morcha dated 19 July, 2019 While it is heartening that a discussion on rural development lasted for nine hours in Parliament with important issues on MGNREGA being raised, we are deeply disappointed at the statement of the Rural Development Minister that not only displays a lack of understanding of the program but also betrays the clear anti-poor sentiment of this government. On the central issue of inadequate...

-The Telegraph Until now, Modi was the only one who represented the government in Niti Aayog Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday approved the reconstitution of the Niti Aayog, the policy think-tank created in January 2015 out of the remains of the outmoded Planning Commission, by inducting home minister Amit Shah as an ex-officio member along with three other ministers who have been similarly designated. The other ex-officio members of Niti Aayog are...

-The Telegraph Figures in May take the total amount of money invested in this opaque source of funding since January to Rs 4,794 crore Electoral bonds accounting for the maximum amount of political donations in India in May were sold in Calcutta, according to information accessed by a citizen through the Right to Information route. Of the bonds worth Rs 822 crore that were sold in select outlets of the State Bank of...

-The Hindu The merger of the NSSO into the Central Statistics Office is a cause for concern The announcement that the government has decided to merge the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) into and under the Central Statistics Office (CSO) has caused both surprise and concern. What exactly the ‘merger’ means remains unclear. Recent attempts to question the veracity of National Sample Survey (NSS) data and the way the issue has been...

-Hindustan Times It is also important to remember that both these laws were the product of sustained, grassroots-level social movements. Consequently, perhaps the surest remedy against possible future dilution may lie not in judicial challenges (although that remains important), but in popular mobilisation. With the 2019 general election yielding a decisive mandate for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), attention will soon turn to the new government’s legislative agenda. As the government is...