-The Hindu During the same period, an amount of ₹39.68 lakh was collected in foreign currency, according to information now available on the Fund’s website The PM CARES Fund collected more than ₹3,076 crore in the first five days after it was set up, according to information now available on the Fund’s website. “During 2019-20, an amount of ₹3,076.62 crore was collected under PM CARES Fund,” says the response to a query on...

-TheNewsMinute.com Kerala has become a state fueled by a remittance economy, but the origins of this, dates back to several decades. In the summer of 1980, I visited Kerala’s Varkala in Thiruvanathapuram for the first time. It was the peak of the first Gulf boom. The media was full of stories on the ones who had made it big. But I was doing an article on the petrodollar paupers — the ignored...

-The Hindu Office cites ‘diversion of resources’ clause; former CIC Wajahat Habibullah terms it ‘misuse of Act’. The PRIme Minister’s Office (PMO) has denied a Right to Information request related to the PM-CARES Fund on the grounds that providing it would “disproportionately divert the resources of the office.” However, a High Court judgment and multiple orders of the Central Information Commission (CIC) have previously held that, under the RTI Act, this rationale...

-Livemint.com As India celebrates its 74th Independence Day, its citizens need to take a hard look at the relationship between their democratic rights and basic economic security While the need for instituting a set of fundamental political rights is generally recognized and enshrined in all democratic Constitutions, there has scarcely been any similar recognition of the need for a set of fundamental economic rights. On the contrary, serious theoretical reservations have been...

-The New Indian Express In times like these when the world is riddled with extreme polarities, a new book, titled, We the People, brings a collection of essays that centres on growth of universal rights. In times like these when the world is riddled with extreme polarities, a new book, titled, We the People, brings a collection of essays that centres on growth of universal rights. Authors Nikhil Day, Rakshita Swamy and...