-Press release by Working Peoples' Charter dated 21st September, 2020 Amidst the micro and macro-economic crisis of the last 5 years, the union government has aggressively pushed the agenda of labour law reforms -- purportedly to simplify India’s ‘complex’ labour legislations, improve the business environment, and augment growth and employment. These changes, driven primarily by the business fraternity, have been aimed at improving India’s ranking in the ‘Ease of Doing Business’...

-The Indian Express Can a democracy permit so many to be in a state of liminal legality? NRC poses a political and moral question The possibility — whether immediate or somewhat remote — that at the end of the process as many as 4 million people may lose their legal status as citizens should not be a cause of celebration in a democracy. Nor should it generate a mad rush among...

Quite opposite to the top-down model of budgeting, the newly elected Aam Aadmi Party-led Government in Delhi has decided to go for a 'citizen-centric' budget planning at 'mohalla'-level for the fiscal year 2015-16. Drawing lessons from the success stories of participatory budgeting conducted at municipal-level in cities like Porto Alegre (Brazil), the AAP-led Delhi Government has decided to launch this form of decentralized budgeting on a pilot basis in a...

-The Hindu     As the people of India have been faced with a Parliament that has been deliberately non-functioning, they have no choice left but to demand that the President promulgate ordinances to bring in laws on which there was a clear consensus The demand for ordinances to be promulgated on consensus legislations such as the Grievance Redressal Bill, has to be seen in the context of the failure of the 15th Lok...

-PTI Decision is believed to have been influenced by apprehension that President Pranab Mukherjee won't give assent to these The Union Cabinet tonight rejected the ordinance route for a set of anti-corruption measures despite pressure from Rahul Gandhi for bringing laws on his pet issues. The Union Cabinet, which met here this evening, discussed the issue of these ordinances but it was felt that "full deliberations" are required in Parliament keeping with the...