-Business Standard Regional centres will help in fostering closer cooperation with states on important national issues NITI Aayog, the Centre’s premier think-tank, may soon have its regional centres across the country, starting with the four metropolitan cities. Business Standard has learnt from sources that the government is keen that the Aayog opens its regional centres to foster the spirit of cooperative federalism and boost participation from the states in all matters of national...

-Frontline The Janlokpal Bill passed by the Delhi Assembly on December 3 fails to meet the goals of the 2011 anti-corruption movement and is a pale shadow of the 2014 Bill. IT took the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, which came to power in Delhi with a massive mandate in the Assembly elections held in February, 10 months to seek to fulfil one of its key election promises: the passage of...

-Economic and Political Weekly India plays a poor hand at the World Trade Organization's negotiations. The idea that there is no longer a sharp divide between the global North and the global South has been disproved in ample measure by the decisions taken last month in Nairobi at the 10th ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The essence of the final communique is that the 14-year-old Doha “Development” Agenda (DDA)...

-The Hindu The National Democratic Alliance government has just introduced a cess of 0.5 per cent on all taxable services for the Swachh Bharat campaign. In February 2016, it will introduce a 2 per cent cess on airfares for all domestic flyers except those flying to remote locations, and international travellers. This cess is meant to fund losses that airlines may incur in connecting to hinterland locations. The Central government loves...

-Economic and Political Weekly The platform known as the JAM Trinity (an acronym for Jan Dhan Yojana, Aadhaar and mobile numbers) may enable a shift from the current Public Distribution System, based on price subsidies, to the direct transfer of benefits. However, it is incorrect to argue that JAM technologies will necessarily lead to the demise of the PDS. State-level experiences of computerisation, recounted here, reveal that the same technologies can...