Panchayat elections in Uttar Pradesh this time have seen unusual candidates jumping into the fray. There are teachers, shopkeepers, businessmen, relatives of politicians and even wives of BSP ministers. Some of them took leave from their normal work and some even sold their properties to take part in the polls. All claim they want to serve their village, block or district, but it is alleged that the lure of money pouring...
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UN study highlights the immense economic and social value of ecosystems
Businesses and policy-makers need to recognize the tremendous economic value of ecosystems, as well as the social and economic costs of losing such natural resources as forests, freshwater, soils and coral reefs, a new United Nations report released today said. The report by the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB), a body hosted by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), seeks to galvanize the world to recognize the economic consequences of failing...
More »MFIs vs moneylenders
The Andhra Pradesh Microfinance Institutions (Regulation of Money Lending) Ordinance, 2010, suggests there’s more politics than understanding of Economics that went into it. The setting up of district registering authority under the ordinance, with elaborate powers to even cancel licences, will increase risks of operations posing serious hazard to business plans and will jeopardise the whole MFI network. Especially stifling is the requirement that MFIs have to submit a monthly...
More »Losing their nerve? by Jean Dreze
Five years ago, when the proposed National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) was a subject of fierce controversy, Bunker Roy compared the attitude of the government to that of a dog who crosses a road half-way, can’t decide whether to go forward or backward, and gets run over. This enlightening image applies again today, in the context of the proposed National Food Security Act (NFSA). The National Advisory Council (NAC) discussed...
More »RTI applicable to Trusts, institutions indirectly funded by govt
In a recent judgement, the State Information Commissioner Vijay Kuvalekar has said that Trusts or institutions that are not directly substantially funded by the government, but still indirectly receive funds to run schools, courses, colleges, come under the Right to Information (RTI), Act. Kuvalekar, in his judgement said that indirectly, since the parent institute is getting the funds for institutes run by them, the RTI is applicable. The judgement came in the...
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