-Business-Standard Even funds for disaster relief being impeded when these come from international bodies Late last year, Caritas India, a venerable and respected voluntary organisation that has responded with alacrity to one Indian humanitarian crisis after another, sent out an appeal through its international network for funds for contributions to relief and rehabilitation work in Jammu and Kashmir, where devastating floods and landslides in September had claimed 282 lives and damaged 2.53...

-The Indian Express Gandhinagar (Gujarat): Rape of Dalit women rose in Gujarat over the last 13 years, reaching the highest in 2014, higher by 500 per cent since 2001, says an RTI reply. The reply to an RTI application by Mehsana-based human rights activist Kaushik Parmar, from the office of Director General of Police (DGP), Gujarat, revealed that 74 Dalit women were allegedly raped and cases were registered under the provisions...

-Business Standard Environment ministry readies draft, which allows industry to fell trees in traditional forest areas without consent of gram sabhas After a lot of back and forth, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government is ready with a notification to dilute tribal rights that would make it possible for most industries to chop down traditional forests without the consent of gram sabhas - a precondition that exists at the moment. After the Prime...

Quite opposite to the top-down model of budgeting, the newly elected Aam Aadmi Party-led Government in Delhi has decided to go for a 'citizen-centric' budget planning at 'mohalla'-level for the fiscal year 2015-16. Drawing lessons from the success stories of participatory budgeting conducted at municipal-level in cities like Porto Alegre (Brazil), the AAP-led Delhi Government has decided to launch this form of decentralized budgeting on a pilot basis in a...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: In an attempt to empower consumers and save them from paying more for medicines, the government is set to make it mandatory for chemists to mention in the bill whether they are selling a price-controlled product or not. Besides, the bill will also mention the price of the medicine as capped by the government. The move will enable a consumer to make an informed choice while...