-The Hindu The public now sees the Internet not just in market terms, but as a social phenomenon that requires public interest regulation. In its aggressive campaign for Free Basics, couched in simplistic developmental language, Facebook underestimated the political sophistication of the Indian public. It must be regretting it now. The social networking service’s reportedly Rs. 100-crore campaign, through double full-page newspaper advertisements, billboards and television, appears simply to have congealed public...
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Civil society urges more resources for social sector
Representatives of around 20 civil society organizations and NGOs met the Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley as part of pre-budget consultation on social sector on 12 January, 2016. Immediately after the pre-budget consultation, a press conference was held by some of these organizations to convey the media persons what demands/ suggestions were made. Subrat Das, Executive Director of Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA, http://www.cbgaindia.org/) informed us that during...
More »'Release Rs 5,000 crore for MGNREGA to deal with agrarian crisis'
-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: Ahead of the Centre's budget preparatory exercise, over 100 civil society members today appealed to Union Minister Arun Jaitley to "immediately" release additional Rs 5,000 crore for MGNREGA in view of agrarian "crisis" in the country. "Given the immediate crisis and requirement of the remaining three months of the FY 2015-16, we request the additional Rs 5,000 crore to be made available to the Union Rural Development...
More »Punjab ‘emptying’ reservoirs to grow water-guzzling rice -Gurpreet Singh Nibber
-Hindustan Times Chandigarh: First, the good news. Punjab has made a record contribution of rice to the central pool. During the 2015-16 crop season, the state contributed 93.5 lakh tonnes to the public distribution system (PDS). Now, the bad news. To grow one kilogram of rice, as many as 5,337 litres of water is required ‑ more than 260 buckets of 20-litre capacity. The water consumed by rice for the central pool...
More »Air quality data blows away Delhi govt’s claim -Damini Nath & Samarth Bansal
-The Hindu Govt’s claim that pollution in the city has dropped over the past week is at odds with data of the daily average levels as well as peak values of PM. The Delhi government's claim that pollution in the Capital has reduced over the past week is at odds with data of the daily average levels as well as peak values of particulate matter (PM). As per a report submitted by the...
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