-Down to Earth The local administration in Jharkhand is undermining the decentralised scheme, created to enhance livelihood, manage natural resources and improve basic infrastructure in rural areas Yojna Banao Abhiyan (YBA) was an outcome of two government programmes – Mission Antodaya (Intensive Participatory Planning Exercise (IPPE-II)) of the Ministry of Rural Development, and Gram Panchayat Development Planning of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj. It gave an opportunity to newly elected gram panchayats...

-Frontline.in The Assembly elections have put under intense scrutiny Narendra Modi’s Gujarat model of development which is touted as worthy of replication throughout the country. Audit reports of the CAG provide ample evidence of it being inefficient, corrupt and not beneficial to the common people. THE standard indicators of development, as is understood in theory and practice, comprise a range of indices, and not necessarily the level of private investment in...

-The Hindu The political scientist on the danger to India’s checks and balances, and the perils of the democratisation of mediocrity in universities Professor of political science and a holder of the Madan Lal Sobti Chair, Devesh Kapur has been director of the Center for the Study of Contemporary India at University of Pennsylvania since 2006. Mr. Kapur, who recently co-edited Public Institutions in India: Performance and Design, says our public universities...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government, which had promised to facilitate the creation of 10 million new jobs each year, can finally boast a direct hand in carving out employment in a season of layoffs and self-inflicted economic wounds. But the jobs are in a sector the Prime Minister had promised to trim: his own administration. The foreign ministry plans to hire 400 computer-literate men and women to help it...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Soon, the last-mile connectivity in remote villages of the country's backward pockets may be provided by transport services run by women's Self Help Groups. The Centre is working on a scheme to provide interest-free loan to women's SHGs to enable them to buy vehicles and hire drivers. These vehicles will serve as public transport to villages not connected to the main town by any such service....