-The Economic Times The government may be forced to trim its legislative agenda - including pushing through long-pending bills on pensions, insurance and banking - following Congress' debacle in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab assembly elections. Pension, insurance and banking sector reforms are part of the legislative agenda of the UPA government but BJP leaders told finance minister Pranab Mukherjee at an outreach session that the government should first set its House in...
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Neglect makes Ganga experts quit by Jayanta Basu
Three non-government members of a central body tasked with the Ganga’s clean-up have quit after accusing the government of “gross negligence” towards the river’s worsening condition. Magsaysay winner Rajendra Singh, Ravi Chopra and Rashid Hyatt Siddiqui have written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who chairs the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA), saying the body has been reduced to a “toothless tiger”. The committee has around 20 members, including senior officials and...
More »A simple proposal on food security
-The Hindu Dr. Manmohan Singh Prime Minister of India March 12, 2012 Dear Prime Minister, We welcome the tabling of a National Food Security Bill in the Lok Sabha as an important step towards the elimination of hunger and undernutrition in India. However, we feel that the Bill in its current form has some serious shortcomings. We are writing to propose a simpler and more effective framework for the Public Distribution System (PDS), which requires...
More »Blind Indore girl cleared UPSC, gets railways job at PM’s behest by Kundan Pandey
A visually challenged woman who cleared the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) with distinction in 2008 but was denied posting got justice after a four-year battle and the intervention of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Purnima Jain, with about 75% visual disability, has been offered an Indian Railway Personnel Services (IRPS) posting under Group B of Class I. Although Purnima is willing to take up the new job, she isn't satisfied with...
More »The time is not ripe
-The Hindustan Times The UPA’s record of policy flip-flops endures. The latest instance is a ban on exports of cotton that seems headed for revocation less than a week after it was announced. The commerce ministry’s line that India has exported more cotton this season than it can afford to without hurting consumption at home does not wash with partners of the ruling alliance or with the political bosses of cotton...
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