-The Indian Express All indications show that an economic revival will take some time — support is required during this period to at least prevent starvation. The effects of the lockdown and the resultant economic crisis continue to disproportionately impact the poor and informal sector workers. Since the lockdown, the Government of India (GoI) has announced relief packages under the Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) and Atmanirbhar Bharat. However, numerous studies...

-Newsclick.in The state Government is said to be formalising plans to give 40% of "degraded forest land" to private firms, allege activists. New Delhi: Amidst the ongoing battle by tribal communities in India to formalise their land claims, the Madhya Pradesh Government has reportedly proposed the privatisation of 40% of “degraded forest land” to private firms. The Government claims that this land is wasteland and has degraded for multiple reasons, and that private...

-NDTV According to the data available with the Controller General of Accounts, however, the central Government's total spending fell from ₹ 14.9 lakh crore in April-September 2019 to ₹ 14.8 lakh crore in April-September 2020, a drop of almost 1 per cent. In a year when the Government has announced multiple stimulus packages to revive India's covid-hit economy, the central Government has spent less than the previous year, NDTV has found. The...

-The Hindu MoEF issues fresh guidelines to accelerate environmental appraisal of projects The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) wants to expedite the environment appraisal of industrial projects. These appraisals, as per norms, are conducted by independent panels of experts that have representatives from the Government as well as from outside, trained in matters of ecology, wildlife and habitat preservation. The Expert Appraisal Committees (EACs) opine on whether a proposed project beyond a...

-The Telegraph ‘Farmers at mercy of corporates, food security threatened’ Eminent economist, professor emeritus at Jawaharlal Nehru University and activist Prabhat Patnaik traces the downward and dangerous slide of the Indian economy, from the demonetisation to the new farm bills. * The first onslaught was in the form of the demonetisation. While Amartya Sen termed this step “despotic”, Narendra Modi gushed that there would be no black money after the demonetisation. In the...