-Reuters NEW DELHI: A leading global charity has frozen $4 million in funding to India, squeezing aid to the poor, after a clampdown by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on donors deemed to be meddling in domestic politics that has raised concern in Washington. The government restrictions on the US-based Ford Foundation relate to a $250,000 grant to a vocal Modi critic, but a top official at the charity said the fallout has...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Narendra Modi government has asked all central ministries and departments to furnish data on recruitment of minorities during 2014-15, and give reasons for any decline in percentage of such recruitment. This is part of the review of the prime minister's new 15-point programme for the welfare of minorities. Though the ministries/departments were scheduled to submit such data to the department of personnel and training by...

-The Indian Express Push for cash transfers tacitly asks citizens to fend for themselves The implementation of cash transfers by a state would necessarily entail: one, the identification of beneficiaries on the basis of predefined eligibility parameters; and two, calculating the exact amount of money, equivalent to the monetary value of the subsidy that beneficiaries were supposed to get, and transferring it into their bank accounts — with the intention that they...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Nearly 2% of the population of Delhi falls in the persons with disability category. However, 20 years after passing of the Persons with Disabilities Act 1995, there is no state policy on disability in place in the national capital. The Act was notified by the Delhi Government in 2001, but successive governments have done little beyond that. While it took three years to just constitute the...

-NDTV New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pet project, the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan, has cost thrown up an ad bill of nearly Rs. 100 crore, according to information revealed through a Right to Information or RTI application.   The government has spent 94 crore only on print, radio and television ads to promote the cleanliness mission that PM Modi launched on Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary October 2 last year. The BJP-led government's bill matches...