-PTI Claiming flaws in the process of identifying beneficiaries of welfare schemes based on the Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) data, a group of parliamentarians, intellectuals and socials activists today appealed to the Centre to take corrective measures to provide benefits to the deserving lot. In a memorandum submitted to Union Rural Development Minister Birender Singh, the members picked flaws in the process of identifying welfare schemes beneficiaries. "The clearly stated aim...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Centre has nudged schools and colleges to appoint student gender monitors who will report any incident of gender bias or sexual harassment on the campus to designated teachers. Although the government has dubbed the measure an "outreach for creating an environment that fosters equal treatment", social activists said a sensitisation programme would have worked better than a system that will only create snitches. According to government guidelines issued...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The National Commission for Women has decided to form an expert panel to help institutions deal with complaints of sexual harassment at workplace after many organisations said it was difficult finding a "credible outsider" who could be part of their internal committees. At least one employer, who had approached the NCW for advice, said it was tough to decide who was credible enough and claimed that the solution...

-The Hindu Business Line Questioning the kind of growth model pursued by the Government, civil society activists on Saturday called for a wider public debate on the reported move to curtail social sector spending on schemes such as the rural job guarantee scheme, MGNREGA, and for the HIV affected. "Considering the fact that the Government is forecasting a 5.3 per cent growth rate for this year, the social sector cuts in Budget...

-Press Release from Centre for Budget Analysis (CBGA) and Jan Awaaz New Delhi, 29 November 2014: There have been a number of media reports recently around possible cuts in Union Budget allocations for the current fiscal 2014-15 in case of social sector programmes, i.e. reductions in allocations in the Revised Estimates (RE) for 2014-15 as compared to the Budget Estimates (BE) that were made in July this year. This issue deserves...