Copenhagen showed how fast and far India has traveled geo-politically. The same, alas, cannot be said about the health of the nation. On the international stage, India’s relentless focus on equity made us proud. The time has come to apply that principle at home. India’s ailing health delivery system is viewed as a worthy but dull topic on a normal day in a typical newsroom in the country. Typically, such neglected...

Notwithstanding controversies, it passed several important judgments The year 2009 was eventful and memorable for the Supreme Court and Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan. The Court faced several controversies, the notable being the collegium’s decision to elevate Karnataka High Court Chief Justice P.D. Dinakaran as one of its judges. This controversy was preceded by a clean chit to Punjab and Haryana High Court Judge Nirmal Yadav in the Rs....

In a bid to curb the tendency among bureaucrats belonging to the All-India Services (AIS), including Indian Admini-trative Service (IAS) officers, to overstay on inter-CADre deputation for personal gains (location or otherwise), the government has decided to make the process of granting extension much harder. The Cabinet Committee on Appointment headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has in a meeting directed the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) to set out...

Women and child development minister Krishna Tirath is writing to all chief ministers urging them to join the ambitious child protection scheme, frustrated over the government’s failure to kickstart the plan. In an internal note to her ministry, Tirath has accepted that progress on the Integrated Child Protection Scheme is “not satisfactory”, and has effectively questioned her own ministry’s efforts, The Telegraph has learnt. Tirath has also suggested involving the Prime Minister...

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday registered a disproportionate assets case against a senior IAS officer, presently posted in the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) as Commissioner, after raiding his residence and other places allegedly owned by him in the capital region. The investigating agency also claimed to have recovered huge assets disproportionate to his known source of income. The officer, Manoj Kumar Agarwal, 43, is posted as Commissioner...