KEY TRENDS   • Oxfam India's 2023 India Supplement report on poverty and inequality in India reveals that the gap between the rich and the poor is widening. Following the pandemic in 2019, the bottom 50 per cent of the population have continued to see their wealth chipped away. By 2020, their income share was estimated to have fallen to only 13 per cent of the national income and have less than 3...

-News18.com The Modi govt has introduced quality-cum-cost based selection as a mode for awarding contracts, which means lowest-cost bid is no longer the chief criterion If the quality of execution has not always been regarded as the forte of public works in India, a key reason is the tendering guidelines, which said that contracts have to go to the Lowest Bidder. However, this stipulation, known as the L1 approach, is now no...

-Newslaundry.com The state’s River Training Policy appears designed to allow near unfettered mining of sand and boulders by private contractors, bypassing green clearance and scientific assessment. In November 2020, a few months before floods ravaged Uttarakhand, the deputy collector of Purnagiri in Tanakpur district announced an open auction of tenders to desilt the riverbed in Champawat’s villages. Tenders for government work usually seek the Lowest Bidder, the contractor willing to do the job...

-The Telegraph The scheme envisages providing jobs to a member of every family who does not have a government job Gangtok: The Sikkim Assembly on Thursday approved creation of over 16,000 temporary jobs in different departments as part of the government’s ‘one family, one job’ scheme announced by chief minister Pawan Chamling earlier this year. The scheme envisages providing jobs to a member of every family who does not have a government job. “We...

-The Hindu The judiciary doesn’t seem to fully appreciate the economic consequences of its judgments The number of legal disputes involving property, contract, labour, tax and corporate laws is bound to increase with an expanding economy. How they are adjudicated by courts not only has direct consequences for the disputants, but also shapes the behaviour of individuals and entities involved in production, commerce and banking. Judicial findings also influence decision-making of government...