-The Indian Express The enhancement of state powers without control or transparency is not being done against our wishes The clamour for security, accountability and transparency is leading to unfettered increase in the power of states. We are enacting law after law, introducing technology after technology, to render citizens transparent to the state. But at the same time, we are weakening protections and consenting to technologies in a way that makes the...
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Lens on money bill route for party funding
-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government appears to have again opted for the money bill route, this time to implement new provisions on political parties' funding, to "sidestep" the Rajya Sabha where the ruling NDA is in a minority. A money bill can be introduced, amended and voted on only in the Lok Sabha. They are referred to the Rajya Sabha but it cannot vote on them, nor can it...
More »How land use affects climate change -Sujatha Byravan
-The Hindu The interaction between people and land is as old as human evolution. When early hunter-gatherers started to settle down in the Neolithic transition and practise agriculture, they began to change their relationship with land in a major way. Starting with the Holocene, approximately 11,500 years ago, many plants were domesticated for agriculture. These and the associated social and technological changes led to dense human settlements that then paved the...
More »The hidden agenda of benevolence -G Sampath
-The Hindu The growing chorus for a universal basic income is a ruse to eliminate or roll back significantly the public distribution system and signature welfare programmes The idea of a universal basic income (UBI) has been gaining ground globally. While Switzerland held a referendum on it last year (it was voted down), Finland introduced it earlier this month. Media reports suggest that the government of India’s flagship Economic Survey this year...
More »Every 3rd person died in road accidents is a youth -Dipak K Dash
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: A speeding luxury car snuffing three young lives, including a woman techie and an auto-rickshaw driver, in Delhi's suburb on Friday night has once again pointed to how youth continue to be the most vulnerable road users and that speeding is the biggest killer. The latest road accidents report of Union road transport ministry shows how every third person killed in road crashes is in the...
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