-The Hindu In a year of economic slowdown and growing inequality, we have been presented with a stingy Budget that fails to ensure the bare necessities for all While the country continues to grapple with the health and economic crisis as a result of COVID-19, widespread hunger and food insecurity is a silent emergency that has not been getting sufficient attention. Unfortunately, the Union Budget also does not include any significant measures...

-The Hindu A look at how the RTI Act has been systematicallyassaulted by successive governments to blunt its efficacy and make governance less transparent For 24 years, until the enactment of the Right to Information Act (RTI) in 2005, Shivaji Raut was an ordinary teacher, the vice-principal of Anant English Medium School in Satara district in western Maharashtra. But when he discovered the power of RTI in demanding accountability and transparency from...

-The Indian Express The current scenario is ideal for policymakers and practitioners to drive home the importance of health spending and institutional development With the first batch of anti-COVID vaccines being rolled out, the mood of the nation seems to be upbeat as it bids farewell to the pain and anguish of last year. The emergency-use approval to the vaccine developed by Oxford University and the Swedish-British pharma major AstraZeneca, manufactured in...

-The Hindu Federalism and good governance need engagement between people and officials, as the MGNREGA programme shows It is 45 days and counting since lakhs of farmers have gathered in Delhi protesting against the farm laws. Leaving aside the merits and demerits of the laws, many are aggrieved about the process of promulgation of the laws as it lacked any consultation with those that the laws are purportedly meant to serve. Very often,...

-The Indian Express The state has taken up 1.31 lakh works under the scheme in the past 9 months till December 31, 2020 including some spill over works of the last financial year out of which only 19,612 works (around 15 per cent of the total taken up works) could be completed till date. Jalandhar: Despite generating 269 lakh person days and starting on a good note despite Covid-19, Punjab has only...