-The Hindu Several legal and civil society luminaries have issued a statement against the judgment against Prashant Bhushan in a contempt of court matter. Here is the full text of the statement and full list of signatories: Statement relating to the judgment against Prashant Bhushan in the contempt of court matter August 17, 2020 We, the undersigned citizens of the country, express anguish and disappointment at the verdict of the Hon’ble Supreme Court finding...

-The Indian Express Current economic contraction is different from previous ones. Governments should borrow and spend India has never experienced negative economic growth since 1979-80, and before that in 1972-73, 1965-66 and 1957-58. All these were drought years with 1957-58 also registering a significant balance of payments (BOP) deterioration and 1979-80 witnessing the second global oil shock following the Iranian Revolution. The real GDP decline of 5-10 per cent that various agencies are...

-Second MGNREGA tracker by Peoples' Action for Employment Guarantee (PAEG), released on 17th August, 2020 A MGNREGA tracker has been prepared by the Peoples' Action for Employment Guarantee (PAEG) that brings to you the latest developments, updates, and figures on the implementation of MGNREGA across the country till 3rd August, 2020. Given the significant role that MGNREGA is playing in the lives and livelihoods of rural workers, PAEG intends to keep...

-Hindustan Times By effectively insulating employers from paying wages to workers, it has reinforced an unequal power dynamic The coronavirus pandemic — and the measures taken by the central and state Governments to contain it over the last five months — has led to widespread disruption across the country. A substantial part of this disruption is asymmetric in nature; that is, it has disproportionately affected vulnerable and marginalised people, those unable to...

-PTI/ The Hindu Finance Ministry’s draft guidelines state that appointments by way of nomination based on the credentials of past service and not through open market advertisement, should not be made as a “matter of practice and must be kept at bare minimum“. The Finance Ministry is working on norms to regulate salary paid to retired central Government employees re-appointed on contract and has proposed keeping nomination-based appointments at “bare minimum“. Please click...