-FirstPost.com Preparation of budgets is traditionally an incremental process: the first railway budget of the present government took off from the landscape sketched in the 12th Five Year Plan. Expansion, modernisation and development of railway infrastructure were to be given thrust through 3Ps: Public-Private Partnerships. Budget 2016-17, however, promises a new horizon on two fronts: overcoming challenges through 3Rs: Reorganising, Restructuring and Rejuvenating Indian railways, and introducing pillars of strategy, including zero-based...

-The Hindu Business Line If the finance panel’s award has been negated by cutbacks elsewhere, there’s a problem A few days back, the States conveyed to the Centre that the new devolution arrangement — more under the Fourteenth Finance Commission award and less from the Union Budget — was not working well for them. The main burden of their argument was that the additional transfers — ₹1.78 lakh crore more this year...

-Hindustan Times New Delhi: She greets you with a ‘Good morning’, then puts on her gloves, apron and a mask, and immediately gets down to mixing chemicals and cleansers in exact proportions. She is no paramedic. Meet the new-age Indian bai, who now accepts all sorts of assignments, right from cleaning and cooking to babysitting and eldercare, via an app on her smartphone. This professionalisation of your regular bai is a result of...

-Livemint.com The claims that Right to Education is forcing the closure of thousands of schools is false or ludicrously exaggerated Most of us who work with school education have been completely mystified by media reports and related opinion pieces which claim that thousands of private schools are being shut down because of the Right to Education Act (RTE). We (Azim Premji Foundation) conducted a field study to investigate this matter. Getting valid and...

-The Hindu An all-woman team of reporters finds a massive online readership in the Bundelkhand region of northern India A homemade drone is shot down because the police think it belongs to the IS. A temple is built for a dacoit and his wife. A group of journalists are stalked for months until their story goes viral on the internet, after which a sleepy police station immediately swings into action. Reporting is...