Soon, anyone would be able to file an RTI application over the phone, with help and guidance from a call centre as well as through a website While the government is consistently blamed for diluting the RTI (Right to Information) Act in several ways besides making illogical amendments at the state level, it is gearing up to make filing of RTI applications by just making a phone call. Citizens will not...

-FAO On the path to Rio+20, FAO calls for a future with both healthier people and healthier ecosystems Sustainable development cannot be realized unless hunger and malnutrition are eradicated, FAO said in a policy document prepared for the Rio+20 Summit to be held in June in Rio de Janeiro. "We cannot call development sustainable while this situation persists, while nearly one out of every seven men, women and children are left behind, victims...

-DNA Though Right to Education (RTE) act caters to the educational needs of children aged between 6 and 14 years, Karnataka has decided to also bring in pre-school students under its ambit. Unaided educational institutions that have pre-school facility, must implement the act from pre-school (LKG) level. Moreover, even at this level the state government has also decided to reimburse a part of the fee to the schools. The education department has issued...

-NDTV Nagpur: The entire Vidarbha region in Maharashtra is facing a drought-like situation following huge water scarcity due to drying of lakes and wells in most of the villages due to intense heat wave conditions. Approximately 4,300 villages are facing the grim situation as village wells and water bodies are drying up fast, prompting the administration to supply water through tankers for human consumption and livestock. According to sources, around 331 villages in...

Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar’s statement in Parliament that the Government plans to shift subsidies from chemical fertilizers to organic manures has finally earned him some admiration from grassroots organisations working with small and marginal farmers in the country’s vast dry-lands. Pawar’s statement, if translated into policy action, may go a long way in improving the condition of some of India’s poorest farmers in the rain-fed areas which account for...