-Vikalp.ind.in While the country is grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic and the economy is in doldrums, the central government, instead of taking measures to provide immediate relief to the distressed population, has used the opportunity to introduce sweeping changes in the regulatory framework of the agricultural marketing system of the country. On June 3, 2020, the Cabinet approved three ordinances. These ordinances were converted into Acts after they were passed, under...

-The Indian Express Mirchantola is one the 25 villages in Amour Vidhan Sabha constituency in north Bihar that has been braving floods and massive land erosion over the past few years. This year, in Mirchantola alone, 100 families have been uprooted. Kishanganj: It’s a race against time for 25-year-old Jahane Alam to save his mud house from the ravaging Mahananda river that has already swept away several dwellings of Mirchantola village. Alam’s...

-The Indian Express The Prime Minister’s Office, which manages the fund, has declined to furnish details of contributions received, saying that PM CARES is “not a public authority under the...RTI Act”. IT’S NOT just a wide range of central educational institutions, at least seven public sector banks, seven other leading financial institutions and insurers, and the RBI, have together contributed Rs 204.75 crore from their staff salaries to the Prime Minister’s Citizen...

-Scroll.in The systemic, structural reasons that precipitated their distress have been completely ignored. The images of devastation faced by migrant workers in the aftermath of the Covid-19 lockdown imposed in March shook the conscience of the nation: the scale of the problem and the severity of the distress pushed this hitherto invisible population into the spotlight of public and policy attention. More than 75 days into the lockdown, after the crisis had almost...

-The Indian Express NGOs are specifically rattled by the proposed ban on transfer of foreign contribution from one FCRA-registered NGO to another. As the government pushes the Foreign Contribution Regulation (Amendment) Bill in Parliament amid criticism from the Opposition, its provisions have caused a lot of discomfort among NGOs, which argue that their space will increasingly shrink if it becomes law. NGOs are specifically rattled by the proposed ban on transfer of foreign...