-Newsclick.in The Modi Government’s sudden modification of the terms of reference via a presidential order on July 29 is an attempt to squeeze the revenue share of states, say Opposition leaders. New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government’s decision to change the terms of reference of the 15th Finance Commission through a Presidential Order is aimed at further squeezing the revenue share of states, without even consulting them, various finance ministers of non-BJP...

-The Telegraph The figure does not include the three deaths that took place this year, including that of Tabrez Ansari, 24 Ranchi: Seventeen of the 44 people lynched in the country between May 2015 and December 2018 were killed in Jharkhand, according to data collated by an NGO. The figure puts Jharkhand at the top of the heap of states where lynch mobs have struck, the small eastern state accounting for around 40...

-The Indian Express An urban employment guarantee programme is an idea whose time has come. Temperatures are rapidly warming up in what promises to be a blistering summer of India’s electioneering. Amidst the belligerent grandstanding on national security and the communal messaging barely below the surface, Rahul Gandhi’s announcement of a minimum income guarantee scheme came as a relief, if only because it tried to steer the public discussions to the...

-The Indian Express Rahul Gandhi’s proposed scheme will do more harm than good if it comes at the cost of existing subsidies for the poor. Congress president Rahul Gandhi signaled the earnestness of his party’s resolve to end poverty and hunger by announcing an untried policy instrument — a Minimum Income Guarantee for the poor. “Millions of our brothers and sisters” could not be allowed to “suffer the scourge of poverty”...

-Counterview.net Reclaiming the Republic, a civil rights network, has released a document prepared under the chairmanship of Justice AP Shah (retired) -- and backed, among others, by Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan, bureaucrat-turned-human rights activist Harsh Mander, economist Prabhat Patnaik, Right to transparency activist Anjali Bhardwaj and social scientist Yogendra Yadav  (click HERE for full list) -- with the "aim" of putting forth policy and legislative reforms needed to “protect” and...