-The Hindu Business Line Despite long years of affirmative action in India, the higher bureaucracy at the Centre has less than 10 per cent representation from the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST), and not a single one from Other Backward Classes (OBC). Higher bureaucracy refers to officers at the level of Secretary, Special Secretary, Additional Secretary and Joint Secretary. According to a written reply by the Department of Personnel and...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The government on Wednesday recast the almost defunct Prime Minister's council on climate change, a move seen as an effort to handle climate issues pro-actively from the top. The revamped body is to meet soon to take key policy decisions ahead of the Lima climate conference next month. Environmentalist Sunita Narain has been dropped from the body - an apparent reflection of the Centre's discomfiture with...

-The Indian Express   The NDA government's move to amend the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013 in the coming winter session of Parliament has run into rough weather following differences between various government departments over whether government servants and their family members should declare their assets, and whether such information should be made public or not. The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) is learnt to have sided with the bureaucracy in...

-Outlook Prime Minister Narendra Modi today pitched for revamping urban governance while linking it to the 'Digital India' mission and 'Swachh Bharat' campaign. Chairing a meeting on urban development here, he said programmes should be implemented in close consultation and coordination with states, generally based on the PPP model and a special module on urban governance should be a part of the IAS officers` training. "The Prime Minister said revamping urban governance should...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Supreme Court today said "heads should roll" because the Ganga has remained polluted even after 30 years and Rs 20,000 crore of clean-up efforts and hinted it might order the closure of industrial units pumping waste into the sacred river. "You can't shift the city but at least you can shift the factories," a three-judge bench said in a terse warning to over 700 such units as...