-Business Standard Not only is your privacy stripped stark naked, the system itself is illegal and vulnerable Indians have serious red tape PTSD. We live with chronic anxiety about the documents that get us the entitlements and paid services we need — food, cooking gas, SIM cards, sale deeds, passports and so on. We’re so tyrannised by bureaucracy that when we hear of an official document that might simplify life, we fall...

-The Times of India MUMBAI: Reserve Bank of India governor Urjit Patel has sounded the alarm on state governments waiving farm loans and has called for a consensus on eschewing them to avoid damaging the national balance sheet. Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Aditya Nath recently announced a Rs 36,000-crore farm loan waiver, which could trigger copycat decisions by the Punjab and Maharashtra governments. "It undermines honest credit culture, it impacts credit...

-Livemint.com India Meteorological Department (IMD) is training state governments to counter persistent heatwaves, anticipating a structural shift in India’s weather conditions New Delhi: Anticipating a structural shift in the country’s weather, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) is training state governments to improve their mitigation preparedness to cope with the persistent heatwaves. IMD has tied up with state disaster management commissioners and health secretaries to formulate plans in the face of large casualties from...

-Livemint.com Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh have started their own versions of Tamil Nadu’s Amma canteens that provide food at heavily subsidized rates New Delhi: The late J. Jayalalithaa’s government in Tamil Nadu had launched Amma Unavagam (Mother’s canteen) with much fanfare in 2013. Meant to provide wholesome food at heavily subsidized rates, the canteens which are run by the government but staffed by women from self-help groups have been a runaway...

-PTI Senior advocate Shanti Bhushan said that even though the Lokpal Bill came into effect in 2014, the Lokpal is not being appointed by the government deliberately. New Delhi: The Supreme Court Tuesday reserved its verdict on a batch of pleas seeking the appointment of Lokpal in the country. A bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi said, “We have heard the arguments of all the parties. Judgement (is) reserved.” During the hearing,...