-ANI The statistics for farmer suicides in India are as striking as they are shameful. One farmer suicide every 30 minutes in 2009, screamed a NYU School of Law report earlier this year. If one accepts that many suicides also go unreported, even this shocking statistics is perhaps an under-estimation. Why, then, would another three suicides, this time in Madhya Pradesh's Hoshangabad District, be newsworthy? For one, the suicides took place during the...

Tamil Nadu’s free laptop distribution scheme, involving what is said to be the largest government order for computing equipment in India, hangs in the balance as all but one vendor, hit by the hard disk shortage created by recent floods in Thailand, have refused to sign on to the state administration’s delivery schedule. “Out of six vendors only one has signed an agreement and we have given a purchase order,” an...

-The Times of India   The government has endorsed a recommendation of Parliament's standing committee to restrain judges from making baseless comments against constitutional and statutory bodies and their functionaries even in cases which don't concern them directly. The decision forms part of the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill that is to be discussed by the Union Cabinet on Tuesday. The government has also expanded the standing committee's recommendation that close relatives of judges...

-The United Nations   Corruption caused by weak governance is leading to unequal land distribution and poor resource management, according to a United Nations report released today, which argues that this lack of transparency is undermining social stability, investment and growth in developing countries. Weak land governance occurs as a result of low levels of transparency, accountability and the rule of law, the report says, which strains “the rules, processes and institutions that...

After pushing for financing adaptation at the just-concluded United Nations climate talks at Durban, India is hitting every button for aid in executing its low-carbon growth plans. This despite India (and China) refusing to sign new climate agreements at the U.N. Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC)’s 17th conference of the parties (COP 17) in the South African city.  India, in fact, has a well-drawn out policy and action plan for climate...