-The Hindu Vacant posts, inadequate members take a toll on the transparency regime A good 17 years after India got the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the transparency regime in the country remains a mirage with nearly 3.15 lakh complaints or appeals pending with 26 information commissions across India. According to a report by the Satark Nagrik Sangathan, the backlog of appeals or complaints is steadily increasing in commissions every year. The number of...

-The Hindu Since NFHS-1, Madhya Pradesh has been struggling to tackle the problem Ever since a confidential report by the Madhya Pradesh Accountant-General came to light, about “large scale fraud/misappropriation etc. in the identification of beneficiaries, production, transportation, distribution and quality control of THR [Take Home Ration]”, the government has been facing severe criticism from the Opposition and activists. Last month, ahead of the translocation of eight cheetahs from Namibia to Kuno National...

-The Hindu RTI data show that no cornea was collected in some States in 2021-22; Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh fare better; nearly 4.8 million are visually challenged in India Despite Central Government’s emphasis on improving eye-donations across the country—Goa, Jammu and Kashmir, some States of North-East and Island States— have had zero cornea collection in 2021-22 so far as per data procured through RTI. The data from 2016 onwards...

-The Hindu The one lever that the government could have pulled as it watched private investment decline was to step up public investment In a meeting held with the country’s corporate leaders on September 15, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman drew attention to an important aspect of the economy today. She rightly flagged concerns about sluggish corporate investment, despite the government’s business-friendly stance, including a reduction in the corporate tax. The reduction, effected...

-India Water Portal NREGA has emerged as a go-to scheme for water conservation in tribal areas leading to higher irrigation coverage and thus augmenting agricultural production Out of India’s total population of 1210.19 million, 104 million, i.e., 8.6% are tribal (Census, 2011), India has one of the highest diversity among the tribes in the world. Broadly tribal inhabit two distinct geographical areas – the Central Indian Tribal Belt and the North-East. About...