-The Telegraph   The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has slammed the petroleum ministry for failing to take back 25 per cent of the acreage of the KG-D6 oil and gas block off the Andhra coast from Reliance Industries after it reneged on its drilling obligations. The long-awaited report from the CAG based on a detailed performance audit of the country’s hydrocarbon production sharing contracts was tabled in Parliament today. The nation’s auditor surprisingly...

-The Times of India   What prompted the Comptroller and Auditor General from not quantifying the losses to the exchequer in the KG Basin contract and Air India decisions may never be known. But from the way the federal auditor conducted itself on the day the reports were tabled one thing was clear-- there seems to be a rethink about the posture adopted by the constitutional authority in recent months. From its almost devil-may-care...

Interview with social activist and Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal. THE organisational abilities of Arvind Kejriwal exhibited during the recent Jan Lokpal Bill movement earned him the sobriquet “Field Marshal of a peaceful agitation”. The social activist and Ramon Magsaysay Award winner played a significant role in conceiving the slogans, the symbolism and the trajectory of the movement. He is credited with anticipating some of the moves of the government...

-The Times of India   The government plans to bring forward legislation to implement key transparency measures in procurement, exploitation of natural resources and electoral reform in the winter session of Parliament. A meeting of the group of ministers (GoM) on corruption on Tuesday evening decided to move forward on anti-graft measures that it has been considering for some time now. The Vinod Dhall and Ashok Chawla committee recommendations on procurement and natural...

-The Times of India   Picking holes in some decisions made by the home ministry, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India has pointed out that the ministry had incurred an "avoidable expenditure" of more than Rs 9 crore by flying helicopters from Delhi to the North-East and Jammu and Kashmir to aid its troops deployed in operations. Besides, it has also rapped the ministry and its police wireless wing for incurring an...