An Initiative of People First
The People's Commission on Public Sector and Public Services's letter to the CAG. The People's Commission has come to know that the Railway Board is opening a backdoor entry to private corporates, Indian and foreign, to privatise profit-earning Railway production units. The four units targeted so far are...
The People's Commission has taken note of the decision taken by the Union Cabinet in March 2022 for “setting up National Land Monetisation Corporation (NLMC) as a wholly owned Government of India company with an initial authorised share capital of Rs 5000 crore and paid-up share capital of Rs 150 crore. NLMC will undertake monetisation of surplus land and building assets of Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) and other Government agencies”
The Peoples Commission on Public Sector and Public Services (PCPS) expresses its dismay at the way the Government of India is going about the opening up and liberalizing Critical Minerals Sector to attract private investments and technology. The concerns of PCPS also revolve around the bilateral agreements and plurilateral agreements in making in the area of critical minerals.
Statement by Peoples’ Commission The People's Commission on Public Sector and Public Services (PCPSPS) finds that the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Bayer, an MNC on September 1, 2023 without even having guidelines on joint research with multinational corporations (MNCs) in place. The agreement has the mandate... Continue Reading →
The recent multiple train accident near Balasore in Odisha, which resulted in a large number of fatalities and injuries, is a reminder of the necessity of enhancing the safety of railways in preference to the introduction of high-speed passenger trains. The Report of the Controller, parts of which are published by the media does not cover the entire aspects of Railway safety and speed.
The global fertilizer production situation and demand for fertilizers in the context of the rise in energy and gas prices, Covid 19 pandemic, and the ongoing Ukraine war are in urgent need of a critical evaluation of the policies and programmes under implementation for fertilizer production and use from the side of the policymakers, farmers’ leaders and scientists in India.
At the fag end of their tenure, the ruling class in Delhi have made these startling discoveries: there is a huge middle-class in the country who need crumbs from the government; there are 30-40 crore workers employed in unorganised sector who are poor and need to be empowered; there are 12 crore small and marginal farmers who need state’s largesse to survive, and there are 130 crore citizens whose efforts to realise the goal of a New India needs to be boosted.
In the Budget speech last year, the Finance Minister mentioned that the government would privatise a few PSU banks in due course. There are reports on statements originating from the Ministry that the government would introduce a Bill during the coming monsoon session for enabling it to privatise PSU banks in principle, create provision for outright sale and relax the cap on foreign equity holdings in them. DIPAM is also conducting road shows in the USA to sell IDBI Bank.
In this connection, we wish to caution the government about the legal and other far-reaching implications of privatising any PSU bank.
Machine voting and counting poses clear and present danger to the integrity of India’s electoral process and therefore its democracy. Large number of electorate have expressed serious doubts about its tamperability, hackability and vulnerability for injection of spurious votes. Several representations on this have been sent by civil society organisations and individuals to the ECI that have evoked no response whatsoever.
Press Release Date: 30.06.2022 Prelude The Government of India (GoI), a few years ago, had unilaterally enacted the three farm laws, in addition to introducing a Bill to amend the Electricity Act-2003, without taking the States and the farmers’ association into confidence. Since both the farm laws and the Electricity Bill would adversely affect agriculture... Continue Reading →
Reclaim the Republic 