-The Indian Express An urban employment guarantee programme is an idea whose time has come. Temperatures are rapidly warming up in what promises to be a blistering summer of India’s electioneering. Amidst the belligerent grandstanding on national security and the communal messaging barely below the surface, Rahul Gandhi’s announcement of a minimum income guarantee scheme came as a relief, if only because it tried to steer the public discussions to the...

-Newsclick.in NYAY amounts to a largesse by the Government, an act of charity towards the bottom quintile, not the institution of a universal economic right to decent living. My attitude to the NYAY scheme of the Congress is similar to my attitude to a benevolent monarchy. While a benevolent monarchy is better than a tyrannical one, any monarchy is repugnant compared to a republic. Likewise compared to the current neo-liberal regime any...

-The Hindu Public interest prevails, says judge New Delhi: The Right to Information Act confers on ordinary citizens the ‘priceless right’ to demand information even in matters affecting national security and relations with a foreign state, Justice K.M. Joseph observed in his separate judgment in the Rafale case. Justice Joseph was countering the claim made by the Government for privilege over Rafale purchase documents under the Official Secrets Act (OSA), saying it affected...

-The Hindu Voters need not know the funding source of parties, A-G tells court New Delhi: Voters do not need to know from where political parties get their funds, the Government argued in the Supreme Court on Thursday. The court cannot “kill” the electoral bonds scheme for the sake of transparency, Attorney General K.K. Venugopal said. He argued that the bond was an experiment to eradicate black money and the court should not...

-The Indian Express Whichever party wins the election, the real long-term challenge is to stem the rot of institutional foundations. The headlines say that the ruling party manifesto emphasises nationalism (“nation first”), and, on the economic front, it will aspire to make India the third-largest economy in the world by the end of the next decade, to make it reach the list of top 50 countries in the ranking of Ease...