By not resolving the definition of ‘public purpose,' the Land Acquisition Bill keeps the door open for MISuse It has taken more than 110 years for the government to draft a new Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill. But despite mounting evidence of widespread MISuse of government authority in taking over farm land and the increasing protests against the legal ambiguity that abets such exploitative practices, the revised legislation remains dubiously...

-The Hindu The government has constituted one more expert group to re-examine the methodology for fixing a poverty line and estimating the incidence of poverty in the country. Changes in average incomes and consumption patterns over time may require review and revision of the approach currently in use. However, the last such review of the methodology originally recommended by the Lakdawala committee (1993) was undertaken after more than a decade by...

-Deccan Herald The files relating to framing of rules for empanelment of officers to the post of additional secretary and secretary at the Centre cannot be disclosed as these are Cabinet papers exempt from disclosure under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the government has maintained. This stand of the government was reiterated in a letter to the Central Information ComMISsion (CIC) by the Cabinet secretariat’s under secretary. The government decided to approach...

Books, cartoons and judgments are being discussed thoroughly from highest bodies of liberal democracy like Parliament to constituents of public sphere i.e. print to media artefacts. Primarily, there are two standpoints regarding inclusion/exclusion of cartoons in NCERT Books (political science). Inclusionary argument is based on idea of deliverance of great service to B.R.Ambedkar while emphasising his teachings, ideas and place in the book. Exclusionary argument is based on cartoon itself...

-The Hindu Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning ComMISsion, responds to P. Sainath: The article “The austerity of the affluent” (The Hindu, May 21, 2012), is so MISleadingly distortive on two points that I feel compelled to clarify the position. I have high regard for your newspaper, and subscribe to the notion that there should be full transparency in government. It is in this spirit that I hope these clarifications...