Urban Infrastructure Financing in India – What has changed?  https://www.cenfa.org/urban-infrastructure-financing-in-india-what-has-changed/

The urban areas have seen a few national missions being implemented to improve the state of infrastructure as well as bring in conditionalities with funds for reforms to privatise delivery of services and implementation of projects by the ULBs. Private sector participation through PPPs and private investments in urban projects have been advocated in urban projects for the past several years including by institutions like the World Bank.

.. Risk allocation between public and private agencies has been a contentious issue in PPP projects since private sector wishes the public sector to take on majority of risks like investments, tariffs, social and environmental impacts, guarantees, etc leaving it free to earn risk free profits.

...The argument about the potential to increase user charges and other taxes to improve the economic base and creditworthiness of the city corporations and hence raise the private financing for infrastructure projects. However, this crucially misses the very important point about the prevailing economic conditions of the larger sections of the population, especially in the post covid years.

... implementation of private projects and reforms in the Indian context in urban areas have not been a success over a period of the past couple of decades. The previous missions like Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme for Small and Medium Towns (UIDSSMT), Smart Cities Mission and Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) have attempted to implement these measures without much success. These missions had mandates to implement privatised PPP projects with reforms in hundreds of large and medium cities included in these missions. The lack of success of these missions shows that there needs to be a change in the national policies to implement urban projects and their financing, however it seems that the lessons from the past experiences have not been learnt.

https://twitter.com/ndtv/status/1625778327943356418

Dalit IIT Student, Who Died By Suicide, Was Humiliated By Friends: Family https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/dalit-iit-student-who-died-by-suicide-was-humiliated-by-friends-family-3783976  Sohit Rakesh MishraUpdated: February 15, 2023 IIT Bombay has refuted charges that Darshan Solanki faced systemic discrimination and said his death is being probed.  Police registered a case of accidental death after Darshan died, apparently after he jumped off the seventh floor of the hostel building on Sunday. They haven't found a suicide note yet, but a student group is alleging that he was driven to suicide due to discrimination against Dalit students on the campus.
While authorities at IIT Bombay have said there was no discrimination on the campus, Darshan Solanki's family claimed he was ostracised by friends.

Communal Statements by Muslim Maulanas come to the rescue of Modi & Mohan Bhagwat https://countercurrents.org/2023/02/communal-statements-by-muslim-maulanas-come-to-the-rescue-of-modi-mohan-bhagwat/   By Feroze Mithiborwala 16.03.2023

It’s clearly not a coincidence that at the recent 3 day convention organised by the Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Hind at the Ramlila grounds in Delhi, has degenerated into another national round of competitive communalism & petty bickering. A convention where religious leaders from the Hindu, Sikh, Jain & Christian communities were invited by the Jamiat to further the cause of communal harmony, was reduced to a spectacle of trenchant disharmony.

Tripura Elections: Close fight between Left-Congress and BJP? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6lktk0k2ms 

Feb 14, 2023 # त्रिपुरा विधानसभा चुनाव के लिये 16 फ़रवरी को वोट पड़ेंगे । बीजेपी ने 2018 में ज़बर्दस्त उलट फेर करते हुये सरकार बनाई थी । लेफ्ट की अप्रत्याशित भारी हार हुई थी । इस बार के चुनाव में क्या होगा ? क्या बीजेपी फिर सत्ता में आयेगी या फिर लेफ़्ट और कांग्रेस गठबंधन उलटफेर करेंगी? आशुतोष ने कार्तिकेय बत्रा से की बात और जाना पूरा हाल ।

Tripura Assembly Election is due for polling on 16 February … in 2018 BJP registered a spectacular victory. This time left and Congress got into an alliance and fighting together. Will BJP come back in power or Left alliance will turn the table..: Ashutosh talks to Kartikeya Batra and tries to assess the political climate

Adani विवाद को लेकर फंसी Dharavi विकास परियोजना !...विपक्ष ने पूछा Maharashtra सरकार से सवाल https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re2U57QWw6w  Feb 4, 2023 
अडानी को लेकर अब महाराष्ट्र के मुख्यमंत्री एकनाथ शिंदे के नेतृत्व वाली सरकार पर महाराष्ट्र महा विकास अघाड़ी का दबाव बढ़ने लगा है....MVA का कहना है कि ऐसे समय में जब अडानी ग्रुप के शेयर गिर रहे हैं तो क्या गौतम अडानी की फर्म को धारावी पुनर्विकास परियोजना पर काम करना चाहिए....क्या सरकार इस पर पुनर्विचार करेगी...गौरतलब है कि
2022 में, अडानी समूह ने धारावी पुनर्विकास परियोजना हासिल की थी। अडानी समूह सबसे अधिक बोली लगाने वाले के रूप में उभरा था। इसने मुंबई में 259 हेक्टेयर में फैली सबसे बड़ी झुग्गी को विकसित करने के लिए 5,069 करोड़ रुपये में बोली जीती थी धारावी पुनर्विकास परियोजना का लक्ष्य 56,000 परिवारों को 300 वर्गफुट घर देकर उनका पुनर्वास करना है

हाईवे उद्धघाटन और PM मोदी का झूठ - कांग्रेस को कैसे मिला बड़ा मौका - Ashok Wankhede की रिपोर्ट ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdfGVvtZZxE Hind Voice Ashok Wankhede

BBC raids: A look into the broadcaster’s long track record of tax avoidance and unscrupulous financial practices in the UK https://www.opindia.com/2023/02/bbc-raids-the-company-has-a-record-of-unethical-financial-dealings/
BBC was found to have been recruiting long-term employees as contractual workers to avoid income taxes

David Smith, the then BBC’s head of employee tax, had admitted that 25,000 contracts covering roughly 1500 staff had been granted on an off-book, freelancing basis, but he argued that the company abided by the laws. He acknowledged, however, that the BBC was able to reduce its liability in cases where the UK’s tax, payments and customs authority, HMRC determined that the person involved was not a true freelancer due to the usage of so-called service companies, particularly by on-air talent.

BBC had accepted, that 148 of its 467 presenters were employed through personal service companies, despite them often being employed long-term. Their contracts shared characteristics with typical pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) contracts.

https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Investigation-into-the-BBCs-engagement-with-personal-service-companies.pdf

15 February, 2023
Rukma Rathore

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj8ySTSKVI4 Supreme Court के खिलाफ RSS के अखबार ने ऐसा क्यों लिखा ? BBC पर छापे अभी भी जारी क्यों ?

Tax 'Raids' on BBC Look Like Vendetta, is Russian-Style Intimidation: Lionel Barber, Ex-Editor, FT  https://youtu.be/xAKGte2nV2k?t=102
The Wire Feb 16, 2023 One of Britain’s most highly regarded editors, who served for 15 years as the Editor-in-Chief of the Financial Times, says the tax surveys against BBC offices in Delhi and Mumbai – which many people view as raids – “look like a vendetta” and is “certainly intimidation”. Lionel Barber says that this treatment of the BBC is “reminiscent of the Soviet Union”.

https://youtu.be/EPw6Z10oDmI

This is a very powerful satire on the planned attack on forest department by vested interests.
It says that the Kerala Forest Department is responsible for all the ills faced by people.
It says the KFD is responsible for human animal conflicts. By not constructing China wall around Wayanad, it's helping animals from adjacent forests in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to cross over. By enforcing the laws of the land like Wildlife Protection Act and FC act, it's responsible for increase in wildlife population.
The KFD is responsible for spreading falsehoods like floods, landslides, climate change etc etc.
The Union government or the Supreme court are not responsible for declaring ESZ around PAs, it again is KFD
The video asks for declaring the KFD officials as vermin and eliminate them.

Wildlife Expert Panel Red-Flags Western Ghat Rail Project Despite Aggressive Push by Karnataka  Ayaskant Das | 11 Feb 2023

The Standing Committee of NBWL has rejected the Hubbali-Ankola rail project through Western Ghats in its present form but has also queried if it can be developed as a double-lined corridor. My latest report for Newsclick https://www.newsclick.in/wildlife-expert-panel-red-flags-western-ghat-rail-project-despite-aggressive-push-karnataka...

In a meeting – the minutes of which were published on January 27 – NBWL members stated that the Railways has taken only its own concerns into consideration in the design of the environment mitigation plan of the project.. activists have raised concerns over the fact that during the aforementioned meeting, deliberations were held amongst NBWL members to consider if at all the project could be developed as a double-lined corridor. “ … the mitigation measures proposed in the project are not sufficient which have been proposed based on railway’s convenience and not by considering the wildlife movement. Therefore, the project proposal is not acceptable in the present form and the proposal requires a lot of modifications,” states the minutes of the Standing Committee’s meeting.