-The Telegraph New Delhi: Finance minister Arun Jaitley today promised gifts for children, women, patients and the poor but slashed his government's funding across the social sectors. Budget outlays for education, health, rural development, social justice and women and children have fallen sharply or remain close to the outlays these sectors had received last year. The allocation for children under the women and child development ministry witnessed the sharpest fall from last...

-Hindustan Times Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday his government would not stop the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme as it was a "living reminder" of the previous UPA government's "failures". Replying to the motion of thanks on the president's address in the Lok Sabha, the prime minister said: "Sometimes people ask whether MGNREGA would be discontinued." Modi quipped though the Opposition might say he does not understand some issues, they...

-The Hindu Perceptions of public safety in India are not driven by urbanisation per se; rather, these are likely driven by the infrastructure and amenities associated with the largest cities in India One of the most important functions of a modern state is to provide for basic law and order. Indeed, this idea emerges from some of the early foundational tracts on state authority, especially the work of sociologist Max Weber, who...

-PTI New Delhi: Under fire from the Opposition on the Land ordinance, government today said it is considering a number of representations from stakeholders expressing concerns on the interests of the farmers on the provisions of the law. Defending the ordinance to amend the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Resettlement and Rehabilitation Act, 2013, Law Minister D V Sadananda Gowda told Lok Sabha that many state governments and...

-The Hindu Government acccuses Opposition of creating confusion The Modi government sent out conflicting signals on whether it would blink on the land ordinance, even as ally Lok Janshakti Party joined two other NDA partners, the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Shiv Sena, to oppose it in its present form. With a united opposition rejecting the controversial draft legislation, and perception having gained ground that the government's proposed changes are anti-poor, pro-rich, harried...