-The Indian Express While the Devendra Fadnavis government in Maharashtra can claim satisfaction for doing everything possible to ensure payment by mills — and before state polls, hardly three months away — that sentiment isn’t really echoed on the ground. Pune: Maharashtra’s Assembly elections are due in October, which is also when the next 2019-20 sugar season takes off. “The current unpaid dues to our cane growers will be cleared well...

-TheWire.in Despite Indian state’s commitment of 6% GDP on education, the Finance Minister completely ignored right to education for children and strengthening implementation of RTE Act which makes education a fundamental right in her budget speech. The Right to Education (RTE) Forum, which is a collective of different stakeholders in education, condemns this neglect of a legal entitlement, which is unconstitutional and demand for overall increase in the budget to ensure...

-The Telegraph Protest over alleged 'procrastination, silence and inaction' of the poll panel during Lok Sabha elections New Delhi: Over 145 retired civil service officers, military veterans and renowned academics have come together to question the “procrastination, silence and inaction” that characterised the Election Commission’s response to issues thrown up during the recent general election. “The 2019 General Elections appear to have been one of the least free and fair elections that the...

-The Telegraph Familiar election-time promise of waivers had prompted many not to clear their dues in the hope that the relief would cover them Lucknow: Some 170 Bundelkhand farmers face the threat of auctioning of their properties and possible arrest over unpaid cooperative bank loans, under a rare move by the Uttar Pradesh government that the farmers said would destroy families. Conversations with farmers and officials suggest the familiar election-time promise of waivers...

-The Telegraph The merger of two statistics bodies would bring such data more directly under the control of the government During the last five years, there have been a number of controversies over economic data presented by the government and by relatively autonomous bodies like the National Sample Survey Office. The controversies have been quite sharp, leading to two senior members of the National Statistical Commission resigning earlier this year. These controversies,...