-Live Mint A report finds that 44% of govt employees are temporary, and share of permanent workers is declining New Delhi: At least 44% of government employees are temporary and the number of such workers is rising, leaving them without access to social security benefits and in some cases depriving them of minimum wages. The size of the government workforce is on the decline and so is the share of permanent workers,...

The Business Standard The Planning Commission has not been central to the policymaking process since the mid-1960s In his Independence Day speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the end of the Planning Commission. There will be few mourners at its funeral, mainly old war horses like me. So this is in the nature of an obituary for an institution in which I served for a decade and a half, and where I...

-The Week Manorama Online Broken hearts float down the Bhakra Main Line canal. Broken by the endless struggle with the land, with the weather, with the creditor. Broken by broken promises, broken by the honour they lost, broken enough to kill themselves. And, at the sluice gate at Khanauri village they slow down, looking up with unseeing eyes. And, from the bridge across the canal, the beating hearts they broke look...

-Outlook The PM would do well to incorporate the Lok Nayak's convictions and what he stood for and not ape alien models to make India's villages as mere markets and show-pieces Narendra Modi was different from other Prime Ministers while addressing the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort on 15 August 2014. He spoke of governing India through sahmati (consensus) not bahumati (majority) and sought the cooperation of people and...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Centre is likely to set up a specialized agency to chart the resettlement and rehabilitation plan for families displaced by land acquisition. The agency, tentatively called the 'R&R Board', will take care of all cases of acquisition as against the present system of the district collector appointing an 'administrator' in every district to work out the R&R plan where land is taken over. Though still...