-MongabayIndia.com * The main focus of the Union Budget for 2021-22 is on infrastructure development-led growth. * This is expected to create a demand in the economy and thereby help it recover after the pandemic crisis. * This commentary explores whether the thrust on infrastructure development will lead to adverse environmental consequences. * The views expressed in this commentary are that of the author. Investment in infrastructure is the most important focus area in the...

-Counterview.net Speaking at the western region consultation on the Right to Information (RTI) Act, whose two-day virtual session began on Thursday, Aruna Roy, formerly a member of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi-sponsored national advisory panel, has said that governments should recognise RTI has emerged as common citizens’ right to seek answers from authorities instead of seeing RTI pleas with suspicion. A pioneer of the RTI movement in India, Roy objecting to recent orders...

-Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA) ‘Analysis of Union Budget’ is a publication which Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA) brings out every year following the presentation of the Union Budget in Parliament. This document presents our analysis of the priorities and trends in the Union Budget with regard to the SECtors and issues that are directly relevant for the poorer SECtions of the population. Accordingly, this publication focuses...

-PTI/ The Hindu The Minister of State for Electronics and IT Sanjay Dhotre noted that the rising popularity of non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) along with e-commerce has also expanded the scope of digital payments. Over 2.9 lakh cyber SECurity incidents related to digital banking were reported in 2020, Parliament was informed on Thursday. As per the information reported to and tracked by Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), a total number of 1,59,761;...

-The Hindu Even with closures, capex exceeded plan, says Expenditure SECretary Expenditure SECretary T.V. Somanathan said the government has been very careful and realistic in its expenditure and receipts projections for 2021-22, and that its push for capital expenditure is the largest ever over a two-year period. Excerpts: * You have called it an expansionary budget, but overall spending is just about ₹33,000 crore in 2021-22 over this year’s revised estimates (RE). Also,...