-The Hindustan Times The Independent Evaluation Office (IEO), which recommended the scrapping of its parent body, the Planning Commission, has found that its funding is being quietly choked. The IEO is an attached office of the Commission and receives money from it for conducting evaluation studies on different programmes of the government. On June 23, the IEO bit the hand that fed it: It made a report to the prime minister's office (PMO)...

-Al Jazeera The UN claims that its Millennium Development Campaign has reduced poverty globally, an assertion that is far from true. The received wisdom comes to us from all directions: Poverty rates are declining and extreme poverty will soon be eradicated. The World Bank, the governments of wealthy countries, and - most importantly - the United Nations Millennium Campaign all agree on this narrative. Relax, they tell us. The world is getting...

-The Hindustan Times The entire framework for monitoring environmental compliance is being dismantled systematically. This is a process that actually began with the UPA government, which replaced the feisty environment minister Jairam Ramesh with the more pliant Jayanthi Natarajan. With industry lobbies still crying wolf, she too made way for Veerappa Moily, the petroleum and natural gas minister, without the UPA seeing anything contradictory in someone holding both those responsibilities. In just a month,...

-Outlook The PM would do well to incorporate the Lok Nayak's convictions and what he stood for and not ape alien models to make India's villages as mere markets and show-pieces Narendra Modi was different from other Prime Ministers while addressing the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort on 15 August 2014. He spoke of governing India through sahmati (consensus) not bahumati (majority) and sought the cooperation of people and...

-The Week Manorama Online Broken hearts float down the Bhakra Main Line canal. Broken by the endless struggle with the land, with the weather, with the creditor. Broken by broken promises, broken by the honour they lost, broken enough to kill themselves. And, at the sluice gate at Khanauri village they slow down, looking up with unseeing eyes. And, from the bridge across the canal, the beating hearts they broke look...