-The Telegraph Call to Kovind to back law he helped draft New Delhi: Former central information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi has started an online petition to persuade President Ram Nath Kovind to stand by the transparency law he helped draft as a member of a parliamentary standing committee in 2004. While the petition, started on Friday, is finding traction, more such letters are being planned to appeal to the President’s conscience so that he...
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What is zero budget natural farming? -Priscilla Jebaraj
-The Hindu * Will this form of chemical-free agriculture increase farmers’ incomes? Where are the pitfalls? The story so far: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman thrust zero budget farming into the spotlight in the first Budget speech of the 17th Lok Sabha earlier this month, calling for a “back to the basics” approach. She said, “We need to replicate this innovative model through which in a few States, farmers are already being trained...
More »EC sets up teams to probe VVPAT mismatch in Lok Sabha election -Damini Nath
-The Hindu Of 1.25 crore votes counted, 51 did not match, says panel New Delhi: After reports of mismatches between the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips and the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) count in eight cases during the Lok Sabha election, the Election Commission has set up teams to probe seven of the cases. Of the 1.25 crore VVPAT slips counted, 51 or 0.0004% of the total saw a mismatch, according...
More »Six reasons why the Economic Survey's presentation of MGNREGA is misleading -Rajendran Narayanan & Rakshita Swamy
-The Hindu The Economic Survey presents an unbalanced view of the technical interventions in MGNREGA A chapter in the recent Economic Survey on the “transformational” impact of Aadhaar on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) merits scrutiny. It presents a skewed and unbalanced view of the programme’s technical interventions instead of taking a comprehensive view of the implementation. The Survey draws heavily from the Indian School of Business’s working...
More »Underfunding, misleading claims: The story of MGNREGA in New India -Debmalya Nandy
-Down to Earth Govt has made tall claims on NREGA implementation; but it is neither keen on providing dignified wages nor allocating adequate funds for the scheme The Union Budget for 2019-20 ignored issues of social security and employment and did not show any intent to boost rural India. The Budget tabled by Nirmala Sitharaman on July 5, 2019 was a disappointment for 13 crore rural households dependent on the Mahatma Gandhi...
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