-The Indian Express The growing influence on policy issues of activists who call themselves “civil society” is a worrying trend and needs to be objectively analysed. Two recent policy pronouncements will illustrate how government seems to be yielding to their pressure. It is well established that absenteeism of teachers and poor quality of outcomes in government schools is the main factor behind the popularity of private schools with poor infrastructure that cater...

-The Times of India The Centre has set up an expert committee to determine the poverty mark to identify beneficiaries of rural development ministry's programmes. The committee, to be headed by Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen, will examine the figures of the socio-economic caste survey to decide who is below the poverty line in terms of deserving the rural welfare schemes focused on poor like Indira Awas Yojana, old-age pension and national...

-Frontline The Land Acquisition, Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill is an attempt to circumvent the hurdles before acquisition, such as rehabilitation of land losers, without much increasing the cost of land. THE preamble to the draft Land Acquisition, Resettlement and Rehabilitation (LARR) Bill is very noble; it talks about a “humane, informed, consultative and transparent process for land acquisition for industrialisation, development of essential infrastructural facilities and urbanisation with the least disturbance...

-Frontline THE newly christened Right to Fair Compensation in Land Acquisition, Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill, 2012, which was due to be passed in the Lok Sabha with amendments, has been deferred to the Budget session. Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh spoke to Frontline on the present status of the Bill and the debate on it within Parliament and outside. Excerpts from the interview: * What were the reasons for the...

-The Hindu How gender sensitive are the government’s flagship programmes, probes a report to be released today Why is the concept of ‘citizen’ always a male? Why is the formulation of government policies always male centric leaving out the female counterpart that actually constitutes half the population and contributes in equal measure to the economy? Perhaps keeping this in mind, UN Women and economists have come up with a report on eight flagship...