-PTI A Parliamentary Panel on Thursday expressed concern over the "slow pace and uneven coverage" of BPL survey under the Socio Economic and Caste census-2011 (SECC). Noting that the survery under the SECC is yet to commence in the states including Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Manipur, the Standing Committee on Rural Development asked the government to adopt a "more action-oriented approach" including regular monitoring of the progress in co-ordination with the...

On March 29, 2011, a Right to Information application on AIIMS faculty members travelling abroad on official tours was filed. The applicant sought details of their reasons for the visits, money spent and sponsors of the trips. AIIMS public information officer Lalit Kumar replied six days later saying, “The information is not available. Presently there are 450 committee members. The details for permission of this kind of work, thus the...

The exploitation of migrant construction workers has grown alongside the expansion of the industry. It's time the government got serious about upholding the law. A recent report in The Hindu on the violation of labour laws at a massive construction site belonging to the Army Welfare Housing Organisation in Bangalore raises yet again the repeated neglect of regulations relating to the employment and welfare of workers by construction companies in India. For...

-The Telegraph The counsel for the Editors Guild, a professional body of senior journalists, today announced its exit from hearings related to an effort by the Supreme Court to lay down norms for covering court proceedings. “We have decided we will not address this bench any more. This bench has no lis (jurisdiction),” senior counsel Rajeev Dhavan declared when the court sought to know whether he would respond to arguments of those...

-Reuters KHAMMAM (India): It was a deal struck almost 40 years ago by a poor, illiterate Indian farmer, driven by desperation after a drought wiped out his crops and left his family close to starvation. The agreement: 10 acres of land, the size of four soccer pitches, for a mere 10 kg (22 lbs) of sorghum grains. "My father-in-law pawned the land for food," said Kowasalya Thati, lifting the hem of...