-PTI President Pratibha Patil's foreign visits have cost the public exchequer Rs. 205 crore, surpassing the record of all her predecessors. Since assuming office as the country's first woman President in July 2007, Ms. Patil has undertaken 12 trips covering 22 countries across four continents. She has four more months to go in her five-year tenure and a trip to South Africa is said to be on the anvil. A series of RTI...
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Menaced by neighbours, activist remains defiant
-The Times of India Seventy-year-old Kalyanasundaram's face wears a permanent look of defiance. Popularly known as 'Thagaval Thaatha', a veteran of over 300 applications under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, he faces threats from close to home - his neighbours. Kalyanasundaram, who gathered with 50 other people from the city on Link Road in Egmore on Sunday morning in response to Anna Hazare's call for a day-long nationwide hunger fast, says...
More »Govt departments take 6 months to reply to RTI queries: Survey
-The Times of India The Right to Information (RTI) Act may have helped unearth some of the biggest scams and anomalies in schemes like NRHM and MGNREGA, but it is yet to become a potent tool to fight injustice for the common man. And the biggest stumbling block is the attitude of the government departments. The Act lays down that information should be provided within 30 days to the seeker. But a...
More »Has Poverty Really Dropped in India? by Nikhila Gill
Remember when the public was outraged at the idea that the poverty line should be 32 rupees, or 63 cents, a day in urban areas? We’ve now learned it should really be 29 rupees. And believe it or not, this is no sleight of hand to show a drop in poverty. The Planning ComMISsion’s latest poverty estimates, released Monday evening, show a 7 percentage-point drop in India’s poor, the largest fall since...
More »Poverty line: Myths, perceptions and reality by Sriram Balasubramanian
The Planning ComMISsion is back in the news. The latest round of poverty levels that have been disclosed have created another debate in the country. Once more, people are stunned at the meager rate of Rs 28 that has been defined as the poverty line. Even though I addressed some apprehensions in an earlier post, this time around the issue seems to be more about myths, perceptions and lack of...
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