-Press release by National Alliance of Peoples' Movements  dated 28 November, 2019 In yet another of its egregious legislative misadventures, the BJP Government with support from some other parties, passed the regressive 'Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights)' Bill, in the Rajya Sabha yesterday, despite wide-spread opposition by members of the transgender, intersex and gender non-confirming communities, seeking referral of the Bill to a Select Committee. We have all been witness to...

-The Indian Express Viable solutions to PDS portability are being ignored in the push for Aadhaar. Migrants’ woes are often invoked in making a case for portability of benefits in the public distribution system (PDS). Most recently, an article (‘A hundred small steps’, IE, September 26) did just that. However, in many cases of short-term seasonal migration (a dominant form in India), only one or two of the household members migrate,...

-Financial Express An overwhelming number of Indians have claimed that they don’t have access to toilets, poking holes in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s assertion of India having become open-defecation free under Swachh Bharat. But the NSO, which conducted the survey, also said that the respondents could not be fully trusted, and that they may have lied to underreport the access to toilets. About 30% of rural households lacked access to toilets...

-PTI On a supplementary question on when outstanding dues to Andhra Pradesh will be released, Tomar gave an assurance that no pendency of dues relating to Andhra Pradesh would remain with his ministry. The government is awaiting the Labour ministry's decision on modifying consumer price indices before linking MGNREGA wages to inflation, Rajya Sabha was informed on Friday. Replying to supplementary questions during Question Hour in the Upper House on linking of wages...

-The Indian Express PS Krishnan was a rare bureaucrat who sought to reform government for marginalised PS Krishnan, who left us on November 10, was an extraordinary combination of the bureaucrat-reformer-activist. His was a life driven by single-minded devotion to the cause of the deprived and exploited. From his student days in his native Kerala and later, as a member of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in the Andhra Pradesh cadre —...