-The Telegraph New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to dismantle the Planning Commission has led to revelations from some of the body's former stalwarts about past attempts to reform the Soviet-era institution that were repeatedly thwarted, culminating in a tense farewell for Manmohan Singh last May. The panel that has steered India's economic management and vision for 64 years without any constitutional mandate has needed radical surgeries for years but was...

-The Times of India BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh government sat on summons by a New York court for seven months, allowing it to deliver a deathblow to Bhopal gas victims, months before the 30th anniversary of the tragedy. The US court, on Thursday, ruled that Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) cannot be sued for contamination from toxic waste in its abandoned chemical plant in Bhopal. The legal suit was pending with the federal district...

-Down to Earth Blog The performance of nutrition indicators amongst Dalits is improving, it is nowhere near the catch-up pace Does a new government and a strong Prime Minister claiming to hail from the backward caste augur Achche Din for Dalits too? We hope so! But political commitment-or lack of it-has multiple manifestations. In a deeply stratified society like India with entrenched elitism, people from the Scheduled Caste (referred to as Dalits...

-The Business Standard   Assessment note says panel acts as control commission, especially in fund allocations to states An assessment of the Planning Commission by the Independent Evaluation Office has found the panel exceeds the scope of its authority by acting as a "control commission", particularly with regard to the allocation of funds to state governments. This is despite the fact that the commission was set up as a recommending body, through a...

-Down to Earth   Most severely and consistently excluded groups are women, Adivasis, Muslims and the disabled, report confirms A recent report by a Delhi NGO undermines government claims on reaching welfare schemes to the needy and disadvantaged sections of society. The report, titled The India Exclusion Report 2013-14, says the government has failed miserably in providing equal access to public goods to the most disadvantaged groups. The report, prepared by Delhi-based Centre for...