How would you rate the functioning of the RTI Act five years into its enactment? It has been a mixed experience. It is encouraging that we have one of the best laws in the world but its shoddy implementation is taking the sheen away. The two nerve centers of RTI are simplifying the process of filing an application and making the functioning of the Commission effective. The posts of Information Commissioner...

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, on Sunday said that world over food security was at risk even as people in other parts of the world led a luxurious life unmindful of it. Delivering his sermon on ‘Bread of life, hope for all' at St. Peter's Church in Vysarpadi, he said that it was the responsibility of the local communities to remind the rich that hungry people have to be fed. The...

Panchayat elections in Uttar Pradesh have thrown up many curious phenomena. Everyone involved with the panchayat elections in Uttar Pradesh seems to love it. Sons, brothers, sons-in-law of MLAs contesting for seats at the village, tehsil or district levels in vast numbers are happy because the vidhayak mahoday is campaigning on their behalf, making full use of the party machinery. Wives and daughters-in-law from ‘influential families' are delighted because their family's...

Unhappy with law ministry's disclosure of then chief election commissioner N Gopalaswami's "confidential" complaint against his colleague Navin Chawla, the President's secretary had asked the personnel department to frame procedural guidelines and make requisite changes in the law to avoid such "embarrassing" situations. The department of personnel and training, after receiving a three-page communication from President's secretary CHRIsty Fernandez in March, issued directions to all government departments to make public records...

Delhi is an anxious city this monsoon season, struggling to meet an onerous deadline. Preparations continue at a feverish pace for the 19th Commonwealth Games (CWG), which will bear down on the Indian metropolis October 3-14, along with some 8,500 athletes from the 71 states and territories that were once part of the British Empire. Around-the-clock construction and spells of heavy monsoon rain have turned Delhi into a swirl of mud...