-PTI   The Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), an autonomous public private partnership project headed by the Prime Minister's cardiologist K Srinath Reddy, comes under the ambit of the RTI Act as it is substantial financed by the government, the CIC has held.  The PHFI came into existence in the year 2006 with an initial fund corpus of Rs 200 crore, in which government had contributed Rs 65 crore, the Central Information...

The government's zero transparency enabled Nuclear Safety Regulatory Authority (NSRA) Bill has got thumbs down from a Parliamentary standing committee. The Atomic Energy Department had introduced NSRA Bill for setting up independent nuclear safety watchdog in Parliament last year with specific clauses limiting the applicability of the Right To Information (RTI) Act, the government's first such move. The bill propose to incorporate additional proviso in section 8 --- listing exempted clauses ---...

In a quiet coup of sorts, Maoists have taken control of panchayats in about 30 blocks of Malkangiri and Koraput districts in the ongoing panchayat elections in Orissa. All their nominees have been elected unopposed after the Maoists warned local people against nominating any other candidate. Close to 2,500 members of these panchayats have also been elected unopposed. Sources said at least 32 heads of panchayats (sarpanches) have known Maoist...

-The Economic Times While there are ripples in political circles over the estimated black money stashed by Indians in tax havens abroad - as quoted by the Central Bureau of Investigation chief Amar Pratap Singh on Monday - sources say that the agency has arrived at the figure following cross-checking several sources, reports and a rough estimation.  "Most of the illegal money abroad forms part of tax evasion by individuals and companies,"...

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday snubbed Google India and Facebook India for their request to treat the case against them for hosting “objectionable contents” only as a “private complaint”, not requiring the government to intervene. The court observed that the case could not be considered only as a private dispute between the complainant and the websites, which have moved the HC against the summoning order by a Delhi magisterial...