Keep up-to-date with all that is happening in welfare policy with this curated selection of news, published every fortnight. 

Policy News 

General:

• The Narendra Modi-led government has completed its first 100 days since reelection. To mark the occasion, a booklet titled Jan Connect: Furthering India’s Development: 100 Days of Bold Initiatives and Decisive Actions has been released. It highlights the key policy decisions of the government. The current government has pushed a number of legislations in the Parliament in its first few weeks, and a broad overview of some ‘hits and misses’ can be found here.

Education: 

• Delhi will have its own Education Board to help students prepare for competitive entrance examinations like JEE and NEET.  The “next generation board” will not be a replacement to the CBSE, but rather focus on improving existing systems  based on student interest since, as of now, students join coaching centres to clear these exams, said Deputy Chief Minister (and Education Minister) Manish Sisodia. 

Rural Development: 

• The Union government introduced a pension scheme for farmers – the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Maan Dhan Yojana – on 12 September 2019. Under this scheme, farmers between the ages of 18 and 40 are eligible, and will get a minimum monthly pension of Rs. 3,000 after they turn 60 years. The scheme aims to secure the lives of 5 crore small and marginal farmers, and has an outlay of Rs. 10,774 crores for the next three years. 

Opinion

• Democratic decentralisation is “barely alive in India”, writes TR Raghunandan in this OpEd. He analyses various issues, including the design of funding streams that transfer money to local governments, inadequate staff, centralised control and corruption, as reasons why local governments “remain hamstrung and ineffective”.

• At the recommendation of the 14th Finance Commission, India began awarding a share of the central tax revenue to states in proportion to their forest area. Now, when the  15th Finance Commission will issue new recommendations on tax revenue distribution next month, it should keep the forest area indicator in the formula and update the year when forest area is measured to account for states’ recent forest growth,  write Avani Kapur, Jonah Busch and Anit Mukherjee. This will contribute to keeping India at the “forefront of nations fighting climate change”.