-The Hindu Business Line How a cluster of villages in Rajasthan embraced transparency, spurred a nationwide movement and inspired the birth of a digital portal to counter the dilution of the RTI The walls were painted a bright yellow. Drawn on them in black were statements of income and expenditure, breaking down figures in meticulous detail with rows and columns stretching across two and sometimes three floors. The paintings weren’t just on...

-The Hindu They can be an effective tool for rainwater harvesting With an increased variability of monsoons and rapidly depleting groundwater tables, large parts of India are reeling under water stress. A number of peninsular regions like Bundelkhand, Vidarbha and Marathwada have been facing recurring drought-like situations. Given the enormity of the crisis, at a recent NITI Aayog meeting, Prime Minister Narendra Modi explicated the need to implement innovative water management measures,...

-The Telegraph The BJP has been cornering the lion’s share of all money going to political parties New Delhi: Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday called for a debate on state funding of elections, underscoring the urgency by drawing attention to how one party has had access to 90 per cent of the money going to political parties. Singh flagged the issue while addressing a meeting to mark the birth centenary year...

-TheWire.in In the name of simplification and universalisation, the new labour codes will likely result in increased worker exploitation. The Indian government has brought out four labour codes with the stated objective to rationalise and simplify the existing 44 labour laws. It is a welcome initiative to consolidate and simplify the delivery of justice to the working class. The four labour codes relate to wages, industrial relations, social security and welfare and...

-The Indian Express Jalyukta Shivar is the flagship programme of the Maharashtra government launched in December 2014. It aims to make 5,000 villages free of water scarcity. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his latest Mann ki Baat, emphasised on the need for dedicated efforts towards water conservation and launched ‘Jal Shakti, Jan Shakti’. Maharashtra has experienced drought four times in the last five years and the scarcity of water is set...