-The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy As one of the world’s largest rural connectivity endeavours, the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) project has been the subject of immense policy interest for the potential it holds to deliver high speed broadband internet to rural India. The building of infrastructure on a scale of this kind was acknowledged as an audacious move owing to the nature of transformation that this could...

-The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy In keeping with the spirit of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, the Union government had, in 2004, introduced a pre-legislative consultative policy for public policymaking. In July 2004, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, which rode to power on the twin slogans of development and good governance, launched a website, MyGov.in, to push forward its mandate of participatory governance. In...

-Down to Earth Eighteen months and Rs 4,275.31 crores later, not even 0.1 per cent of the project could be completed "By the time the nation completes 75 years of its Independence (2022), every family will have a pucca house with water connection, toilet facilities, 24x7 electricity supply and Access." It was May 2014 and the Modi-led government had just come to power. A year later, during the presentation of Annual...

-TheWire.in The Rs 6,000 announced by the prime minister as universal maternity entitlements is already mandated under the National Food Security Act 2013, although the government has chosen not to implement it yet. New Delhi: In his New Year’s Eve address to nation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made some bizarre claims about the nature of the economy and the use of black money. But a large chunk of his speech was focused...

-Scroll.in India’s first chief statistician, Pronab Sen, is now country director of the International Growth Centre, which seeks to build effective growth facilities through engagement between policymakers and researchers. In this interview to Scroll.in, he speaks on the 50 days of demonetisation, its failings, its severe impact on the poor, the loss of credibility of the Reserve Bank of India, the push to make India a cashless or less-cash economy, and...