-The Times of India NEW DELHI: In a bid to cleanse politics of criminal elements, the Election Commission has backed banning politicians from contesting polls if charges are framed in cases punishable by at least five years in jail with the caveat that cases should have been registered six months prior to elections. The EC has asked the Supreme Court to direct the Centre to amend the law and its affidavit states...
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Topping NITI Aayog Health Index may deprive Kerala of incentives -C Maya
-The Hindu Being at the top of the game is not always rewarding. So it would seem, going by Kerala’s story. In the first-ever Health Index initiative spearheaded by NITI Aayog, Kerala has emerged on top as far as overall performance is concerned. But in terms of incremental progress, it ranks 21 because the targets for many of the indicators by which the States are being measured were achieved by Kerala way...
More »Government mops up Rs 26,500 crore from those who didn't file tax returns
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The government's drive, through a non-filer monitoring system, to target those who indulge in high value transactions but don't pay enough taxes has forced the filing of at least Rs 1.7 crore extra returns and helped the Centre mop up close to Rs 26,500 crore till December. In a written reply, finance minister Arun Jaitley told Parliament on Friday that for the past few years, the...
More »'Formalising' the Economy: What's in It for Workers? -Karuna Dietrich Wielenga and Shashank Kela
-TheWire.in The Modi government’s attempts to reshape the economy lie entirely in the financial realm; they come on the back of concerted efforts to strip workers of legal protection in not just the informal sector, but also the formal. The Narendra Modi government has made two major interventions in the economic sphere, demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax (GST), with the ostensible aim of expanding the formal sector at the expense...
More »Another Budget, Another Year of Ignoring Binding Laws on Rights -Nikhil Dey and Aruna Roy
-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...
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