-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The political class on Monday was a divided house on corporate houses directly picking the beneficiaries of their 'big money'. While the big parties led by Congress and BJP favoured the present system of corporate funding during the Election Commission's national consultation here on 'Political Finance and Law Commission's Recommendations', the Left, Trinamool Congress and JD(U) plumped for a system whereby entire corporate funding is funnelled...

-Economic and Political Weekly The many schemes that have been announced in the name of social security are limited in scope and the quantum of security they prefer. The promotional schemes will also be linked to the market and will benefit the insurance companies. In the meanwhile, basic social security programmes are either ignored or provided limited funding K P Kannan (kannankp123@gmail.com) is Visiting Professor at the Institute for Human Development, New...

-Outlook The NDA seems bent on subverting the RTI Act. Is the slow dismembering of the CIC part of the plan? We Have No Recall For the first time since its inception, CIC's functions expropriated by the govt A search committee set up to appoint a new CIC chief says meeting details cannot be revealed; "highly confidential" RTI appeals pertaining to prime depts...

-Frontline If Budget 2015 is any indication, the Modi government is going beyond what could be called benign neglect of agriculture to policy moves that are likely to harm its viability. IT is scarcely surprising that farmers are upset with the Narendra Modi government. Indeed, the rosy dreams created by that famous campaign advertisement of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), when farmers spoke of the high crop prices and better cultivation conditions...

-The Hindu The Law Commission has recommended that newspaper advertisements on the eve of elections be banned. In a report released on Thursday, the commission wanted Independent candidates to be barred from contesting elections, and paid news made an electoral offence leading to disqualification. Headed by Justice A.P. Shah, the commission submitted its 255th report, on the issue of electoral reforms, to the Union Law Ministry. Noting that the ban on broadcast...