Although social activists and concerned economists demanded at least Rs. 1 lakh crore to be earmarked in favour of the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the Finance Minister in her budget speech on 1st February allocated only Rs.61,500 crore to it for the financial year 2020-21. As compared to the fund spent on MGNREGA in 2019-20 (i.e. revised estimate of Rs.71,001.81 crore), the amount set aside for the...

-Down to Earth Its primary aim is to woo voters in Bihar where elections will take place later this year While the whole country is fighting against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the priority of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is to manage Rajya Sabha elections and campaign for the Bihar state Assembly elections. The launch of ‘Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan’ by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 20, 2020, is nothing but...

-The Telegraph Delhi poll verdict shows aligning political expediency with actual health needs of the country seems possible A by-product of the Delhi assembly election results was the political vindication of the idea of ‘Mohalla clinics’. The lessons offered by these institutions and their implications for Indian healthcare merit discussion. The first Mohalla clinic was opened in West Delhi in 2015 as part of an initiative of the Delhi state government to open...

-The Hindu In a democracy, people participate politically not only during but between elections We are witnessing unprecedented public protests in India. Thousands continue to assemble on the streets to demand that the government rethink the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the National Register of Citizens. Such public protests are the hallmark of a free, democratic society, whose logic demands that the voice of the people be heard by those in power and...

-The Hindu Rue the use of unaccounted money in next month’s Assembly elections New Delhi: Activists working for electoral reforms said they were disappointed on Monday when the Supreme Court declined to stay the electoral bond scheme of the government, saying that the anonymous donations to political parties through these bonds could continue for the Delhi Assembly elections next month. A founder of the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), which had filed a...