-ThePrint.in Many cadre officers are unwilling to come on central deputation, so Modi govt plans to fill massive vacancies and increase efficiency in one stroke. New Delhi: A year after the Narendra Modi government recruited nine joint secretaries from the private sector, it is now Planning to hire as many as 400 directors and deputy secretaries through the process of lateral entry, ThePrint has learnt. Sources in the Department of Personnel and Training...

-Jan Swasthya Abhiyan Statement on Missing Health System element of the Stimulus Package dated 3rd June, 2020 The strengthening of the public system needs a shift towards pro-people orientation. There is, therefore, a need to ensure a genuine bottom up, need-based decentralised Planning, implementation and monitoring, with strong involvement of communities. Please click here to read the entire statement. ...

-Society for Social and Economic Research Monograph 20/3 Key Messages Lack of Planning and preparation by the Central government for tackling the COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a massive blow to India’s economy and has caused enormous hardships to working people of the country. Harvesting of Rabi crops • Unplanned and sudden imposition of the lockdown resulted in a massive and unprecedented disruption to agricultural activities such as harvesting, sale of agricultural produce, and purchase...

-Newsclick.in The suspension of labour laws by BJP governments promotes corporate interests at the expense, not just of workers, but the rest of society, including small businesses and petty producers. Even as millions of migrant workers are wearily trudging back to their villages with no money, no food and no shelter, or are locked up en route in shoddy quarantine camps, a war has been unleashed on the rights of workers under...

-The Indian Express Mani Shankar Aiyar writes: Planning for withstanding the ingress of COVID-19 requires the full deployment of the mechanisms for district Planning envisaged in Article 243 ZD involving all three tiers of the panchayats and the municipalities brought together in the district Planning committee An unintended but welcome consequence of the struggle against COVID-19 is that the “confrontational federalism” that has characterised the Centre’s relations with the states, especially those...