NIIRA RADIA — owner of PR company Vaishnavi Communications, among others — is not merely a fixer in the old sense of the word. She is a thermometer reading for a very ill society. In April this year, a clutch of mysterious documents had made their way to several media houses. At face value the documents seemed a synopsis of phone conversations between Niira — a powerful lobbyist for Mukesh...

Business was derailed in Parliament for the tenth day on Thursday as Opposition and the Treasury benches vociferously raised matters of corruption leading to adjournment of both the Houses, causing the public exchequer well over Rs 60 crore in the winter session till now. Amid pandemonium, both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on Thursday were adjourned for an hour barely a minute after they met and later adjourned for the...

Often called Chanakya for his political astuteness, Engineer-politician Nitish Kumar blended his secularist ideology with pragmatic politics and combined the development plank with innovative social engineeering equations in Bihar to bask in glory yet again. Doing an encore after today's landslide victory, the 59-year-old Chief Minister with his trademark kurta pyjama and grey stubble has become RJD strongman Lalu Prasad's nemesis single handedly contributing to the electoral meltdown of RJD-led Secular...

The Hindu MEDIA FOCUS: "Perhaps because of the large number of journalists involved in the controversy, most Indian newspapers and TV channels have not covered the Radia tapes at all." The Niira Radia episode raises questions about the boundary between legitimate news gathering, lobbying and influence peddling. The publication of taped conversations between Niira Radia — a lobbyist for Mukesh Ambani and Ratan Tata with a keen interest in the allocation of...

Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan on Tuesday announced a comprehensive package for relief and remediation of victims of the Endosulfan pesticide in the State. The package includes higher pensions, special education, housing, drinking water supply, rehabilitation, training and employment. Debt relief to the victims' families would also be considered. Mr. Achuthanandan made the announcement after a conference of officials, people's representatives and non-governmental organisations convened to discuss the plight of...