A large number of civil society organisations and common people from various districts of Rajasthan staged a massive protest rally in Jaipur on Dec 15 against the state government’s inaction in the implementation of social audits in the NREGS works. They have charged that the state government has deliberately avoided taking action against elected sarpanches who have managed to stall the process of social audits in the state. Over 1500...

  On a day of long speeches in the plenary and loud protests outside, the Danish president of the UN climate talks here told developing countries that progress on the Kyoto Protocol is unlikely here. There may not be any post-2012 commitment of emission cuts by rich nations under the Protocol coming out of Copenhagen. Outside, protesters and police scuffled as an attempt to break through the barricades of the Bella Centre,...

While cases of molestation in the Capital came down in 2008, compared to 2006, FIRs registered for carjacking and robbery remained the same, and snatching cases showed an increase last year compared to 2006. This was disclosed by Minister of State for Home Mullappally Ramachandran in reply to a question in Parliament on the number of murder, robbery, teasing, chain snatching and carjacking cases reported in Delhi, and the number...

Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram on Tuesday said it was a matter of concern that the police, prosecutors and judges were ignoring the guidelines issued by the Centre on handling of cases of crime against women. Responding to supplementaries during the question hour in the Lok Sabha, he said there were strict guidelines on how a case (crime against women) should be investigated and prosecuted. “I agree that the guidelines are...

A rogue’s gallery of corrupt politicians and entrepreneurs trying to create money out of thin air.  It is impossible to quantify the level of fraud in public spending on wind energy The European wind association does not have a code of conduct for developers A big Danish firm revealed that it was the victim of a 12 million euro fraud The northern trade winds of the Canary Islands have long tempted daredevil windsurfers,...