While the high-profile Adarsh land and housing scam has brought Mumbai's near-lawless urban development into focus, a silent malnutrition crisis in the city points also to a grotesque imbalance in people's access to resources and a collapse of social services. At least 16 children under six years have died from malnutrition and related illnesses from April this year in just one locality of the city - Shivaji Nagar in Govandi,...

Today, the Indian media—both print and television—is focusing on the recent corruption scandals involving the UPA Government with unusual zeal. However, I fail to understand why almost every commentator, every TV anchor, every editorial writer feels compelled to pay ritual obeisance to the “personal honesty and integrity” of Dr Manmohan Singh while dealing with the scandals emanating from his cabinet colleagues. They do so even when there is clear evidence...

Forcible acquisition of land for setting up of township at Rajarhat allegedThree years after Nandigram and two years after Singur, the theatre of political combat over land in West Bengal has shifted to Rajarhat on the northeastern fringe of Kolkata, where the Trinamool Congress braces itself for a fresh movement against what it alleges is forcible and dubious acquisition of land for the township coming up in the area. And...

Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan on Wednesday announced a judicial probe into the Adarsh cooperative housing scandal, saying in the assembly that a retired Supreme Court or high court judge and a former chief secretary would comprise the two-member panel. Somewhat predictably, the opposition parties described Chavan's announcement as unsatisfactory and rushed into the well of the House shouting slogans against the government, accusing the Congress-NCP alliance of shielding the scam...

Beneficiaries include sitting and retired judges, IGP, Congress MLAAn RTI query into the allotment of prime land and flats under the Tamil Nadu Housing Board scheme has unravelled another land scam where the discretionary quota, which is 15 per cent reserved, was misused for favours to people in high offices, including judges, MLAs and bureaucrats.Some of these beneficiaries were given plots under the ‘unblemished Government Servant (UGS) quota, especially in...