-Business Standard The Commission says incentives for states will be decided, among others, by "control or lack of it in incurring expenditure on populist measures" New Delhi: States offering debt waivers or slipping on centrally funded programmes, such as Swacch Bharat, could get penalised, according to the terms set for the 15th Finance Commission. The Terms of Reference of the Commission, set up by the central government this week, makes these conditions...

-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...

-TheWire.in RTI activist Commodore (Retd.) Lokesh K. Batra says he was provided details on the appointment of information commissioners during the Manmohan Singh era, but under the Modi government, there has been a marked change. New Delhi: Over the last 12 years, deliberate attempts have been made to dilute and lessen the effectiveness of the Right to Information Act, according to RTI activist Commodore (Retd.) Lokesh K. Batra. On the basis of the...

Confirming the rising trend of prevalence of wasting (i.e. too thin for height) among children below 5 years of age, a new report on the state of global hunger shows that during 2017 India ranks 100th among 119 countries in terms of Global Hunger Index (GHI). Entitled 2017 Global Hunger Index: The Inequalities of Hunger, the report indicates that the neighbouring countries such as China (GHI score: 7.5; GHI rank:...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today constituted an economic advisory council, shedding a three-year policy of relying on loose-knit groups and reviving a formal set-up that had helped Manmohan Singh navigate the global downturn a decade ago. The "course correction" by Modi is being linked to the grim news on the economic front largely in the wake of demonetisation and teething troubles in the implementation of the GST. The council...