-The Tribune Chandigarh: At a time when the property prices have skyrocketed in the urban areas, affordable housing may well be within the reach of the ‘aam aadmi' in Haryana. In fact, with a view to attract the private builders to go in for affordable housing, the Hooda Government is set to launch its ambitious "Affordable Housing Policy-2013" to provide housing to the lower strata of society with an eye on...

Groups from across India gathered in Delhi recently to assess the Forest Rights Act’s journey since 2006. The law is often dubbed as ‘landmark’ because it ended the age-old illegality surrounding communities living in forest areas by entitling them to individual and community land title. It also went beyond the colonial paradigms of the forest bureaucracy to recognise community efforts at protecting and preserving forests. Numerous groups and individuals working...

-PTI In a peculiar case, the Central Information Commission could not punish some CBI officials for a delayed response on an RTI application seeking information on Commonwealth Games related corruption cases as the persons concerned were "no longer in service". During a hearing of a complaint filed by Delhi advocate Vivek Garg, Chief Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra said no penalty was imposed on the officials with CBI's Anti Corruption Branch (ACB),...

-The Hindu Those opposing Justice Katju’s suggestion of minimum qualifications for journalists are out of touch with reality Some years ago, the journalism entrance test at a career development institute in Mumbai had this objective-type question: Kofi Annan is (a) a Nigerian footballer (b) lead singer of a Sierra Leone pop group (c) a Sri Lankan delicacy (d) Secretary-General of the United Nations. The 100-odd candidates who appeared for the test were...

-The Economic Times Finance Minister P Chidambaram has warned corporate bigwigs against wilful defaults, reminding promoters that it was their duty to bring in additional capital if their companies got into trouble. "We cannot have an affluent promoter and a sick company," he said, in an apparent reference to the collapse of Kingfisher Airlines, owned by the flamboyant Vijay Mallya. Banks are stuck with nearly Rs 7,000 crore worth of loans they...