-The Indian Express From Greenpeace to a Danish government wing to church-backed NGOs, the government has put 14 foreign donors in the “prior approval” category; any transaction they make through Indian banks will need Home Ministry clearance. Among the allegations against them is that they were funding anti-India activities and clandestinely routing money to Greenpeace India. DENMARK DANIDA: Danish International Development Agency, the humanitarian aid wing of Denmark’s foreign ministry. Dan Church Aid: Funded...

-The Times of India As successive spells of freak rains in March-April ravaged fields across Uttar Pradesh, a spate of farmer deaths were reported. Most of these were ascribed to suicide or trauma, as crop losses mounted and the state appeared to be reeling under a fresh agrarian crisis. The UP government moved to provide relief, but on farmer deaths, it saw things a little differently. "There is no conclusive proof, yet,...

-The Times of India Despite more access to education, better household amenities and increased incomes, the economic gap between upper castes and dalit and tribal communities continues unchanged over the years, according to latest economic data from the NSSO. A comparison of average monthly expenditure of households belonging to dalit communities with upper caste households showed that in rural areas there was a gap of about 38% in 1999-2000 which changed only...

Amidst brouhaha over the importance of MGNREGA, the recently released 68th Round National Sample Survey (NSS) report clears the air whether the MGNREGA had been beneficial to employment of persons from Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs). Based on a survey of nearly 59,700 households in rural areas of India, the NSS 68th Round data shows that the proportion of persons who got job in...

-The Hindu Business Line   Land holders deserve a just, dignified deal. The 2013 came close to that; now, we are turning the clock back It isn't really surprising that the public debate over the land acquisition law has been reduced to a simplistic narrative of whether farmers have become the stumbling blocks to India's growth story by refusing to part with their land. In the past, debates over big dams and nuclear...