-The Indian Express Disaster-conscious planning as part of the urban agenda is helping India better prepare for natural calamities. Chennai 2015, Srinagar 2014, Uttarakhand 2013, Mumbai 2005. These disastrous floods remind us that without proper planning, unusually heavy rains in densely populated areas can brew a deadly cocktail for disaster. The issue is not just India’s alone. In our rapidly urbanising world, making towns and cities safer is emerging as one...

-TheCitizen.in NEW DELHI: Clean India "Swachh Bharat Mission" (SBM) is a national campaign by the Government of India, covering 4,041 statutory cities and towns, to clean the streets, roads and infrastructure of the country. The campaign was officially launched on October 2, 2014 at Rajghat, New Delhi, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself cleaned the road. It is projected as India's biggest ever cleanliness drive and 3 million government employees including school...

-Livemint.com The government relies on for-profit big business to deliver public goods despite their inability to deliver Can we listen to the budget as an annual public statement by the government of its economic and social philosophy and intent? The centre abandoned five-year plans that earlier laid down a road map of where government policies are headed. The budget, then, is an important reality check of whether the government is literally...

-The Hindu The Aadhaar Bill opens the door to mass surveillance. This danger needs to be seen in the light of recent attacks on the right to dissent. No other country, and certainly no democratic country, has ever held its own citizens hostage to such a powerful infrastructure of surveillance. The Aadhaar project was sold to the public based on the claim that enrolment was “voluntary”. This basically meant that there was...

-The Hindu Business Line The Budget outlay apart, an ambience of autonomy and a focus on soft skills are just as important The Budget identifies education as one of the key pillars of its agenda. It offers support on three dimensions — reach, infrastructure, and quality in higher education. Extend reach: The Budget aims to extend the reach of education. At the post-secondary level, it focuses on expanding skill development (by scaling up...