-TheWire.in The making of the Union Budget has been a far too secretive and hidden exercise. Social sector expenditure and allocations related to policy announcements should be matters of open ongoing debate. On December 20, 2017, a group of 60 eminent economists sent an open letter to the finance minister stating: “We are writing to draw your attention to two urgent priorities for the forthcoming budget.” The first was to increase the central...

-The Economic Times blog Word has it that World Bank economists use “obviously fabricated” data from time to time. These are not Sitaram Yechury or Medha Patkar’s words, but those of Paul Romer, former chief economist of the World Bank, in a recent email exchange reported by Financial Times. Romer retracted them later, but this “may not end the controversy”, as The Economist mildly put it. This is not the first time...

-Press Release by National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) The Delhi Solidarity Group (DSG) has come out with a critique of the Union Budget 2018-19. Please click here to access the report by DSG entitled: Issues of Marginalized Sections: Analysis from the perspectives of Handloom, Fisheries, Dalits, Adivasis, Forest, Agriculture, Banking and Financing, Urban Housing, Rural Development, Land & Higher Education. The following civil society organizations have contributed for the preparation...

-The Hindu Chief Justice Dipak Misra says no third party has the right to harass a couple, in reference to honour killings Two adults are free to marry and “no third party” has a right to harass or cause harm to them, said Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, speaking against honour killings on Monday. “When two people get into wedlock, no one should interfere. Neither parents, society, khap or panchayat... no one...

-The Hindu A large-scale vocational education system would help raise the productivity of individuals and the economy Basic education has slipped in priority in the national policy matrix over the decades. The Census and several other data sets have pointed to various dimensions of the problem. Recently, the Annual Status of Education Report (Rural) 2017, published by a non-governmental organisation and containing data from 26 districts in 24 States, has some national-level...