-The Telegraph Nirmala Sitharaman’s budget spells out the colossal failure that the draft NEP is fated to be In her budget speech on July 5, the finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, reiterated the government’s plan of bringing in a new National Education Policy, thereby initiating “major changes in both school and higher education”. Her announcement comes close on the heels of a draft NEP published by the ministry of human resource development in...

-The Hindu Business Line How a cluster of villages in Rajasthan embraced transparency, spurred a nationwide movement and inspired the birth of a digital portal to counter the dilution of the RTI The walls were painted a bright yellow. Drawn on them in black were statements of income and expenditure, breaking down figures in meticulous detail with rows and columns stretching across two and sometimes three floors. The paintings weren’t just on...

-The Hindu When data is monetised, as the Economic Survey advocates, it becomes toxic and harms public interest Last year, I was denied information requested under the Right to Information Act (RTI) 2005. I had sought the names of agencies empanelled by the Unique Identification Authority of India for an “image makeover” and the expenditure on it. It was denied by invoking the exemption clauses of Sections 8(d) and 8(j), respectively, i.e....

-The Economic Times India’s deficit numbers have come under lens as the govt is increasingly depending on off-budget borrowings. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has said that the central government’s key deficit figures may be considerably higher than those stated in the union budget. In a presentation to the 15th Finance Commission (FFC) on July 8, three days after the July 5 budget, CAG has asked whether the extra-budgetary resources accounted for...

-The Telegraph There are concerns that the proposal in the Economic Survey would end up privatizing a public good The Economic Survey has proposed that data of citizens obtained by the government be monetized for social benefits. It has claimed that data are a public commodity and, hence, people should benefit from large data sets. It has been proposed that data should be sold by the government to private entities like corporations...