-The Hindu Amitabh Kant attributes downshift to spate of measures including GST, RERA and IBC New Delhi: A spate of reforms undertaken by the government has led to the current slowdown in the country, Amitabh Kant, the CEO of policy think-tank NITI Aayog, said on Friday. This came as a note of caution from the senior official as he was advocating a series of policy decisions to revive the economy. Greater liquidity “Firstly, you...

--The Indian Express PMGSY was rolled out in 2000 to provide access to all-weather Roads in 1.78 lakh rural habitations across the country. New Delhi: A recent independent World Bank assessment of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) rural Roads programme meant to establish ‘farm to market connectivity’ shows that the PMGSY Roads, in fact, “triggered a shift from farm to non-farm employment” in the habitations studied between 2009 and...

-Outlook The government got Rs 65 crore by selling data of approximately 25 crore vehicle registrations and 15 crore driving licences. However, is selling this data legal? Is the data actually ‘public’? Isn't it intrusion on privacy? On July 8, the Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari responded to an unstarred question by Congress Rajya Sabha MP Husain Dalwai on details of data sold by the government “by providing access...

-Down to Earth Government cites increasing pollution and heatwave in the state as reason for the ban The Government of Bihar recently banned felling of trees, citing increasing pollution as well as a fatal heatwave. Trees on private land, however, can be felled in the absence of a tree-protection Act in Bihar. The current order was passed under the Forest Conservation Act, DK Shukla, principal chief conservator of forests, told Down To Earth (DTE)....

-IndiaSpend.com Mumbai: As 128 children died of encephalitis in Bihar over 19 days to June 21, 2019, a new study reports that the state’s rural population prefers government investment in public healthcare over Roads, jobs and cash transfers. In a survey conducted by the Brookings Institution, an American research group, in an administrative block of Bihar, 3,800 respondents--comprising the poor, less-educated and disadvantaged caste groups--were asked to make a choice: an incremental...