-The Indian Express With the Union cabinet having approved the Right of Citizens for Time Bound Delivery of Goods and Services and Redressal of their Grievances Bill, 2011 (hereafter referred to as the GR bill), Parliament has an opportunity to enact a law that would give citizens a way in which to hold government functionaries accountable. An effective GR act has the potential to transform the relationship between an ordinary Indian...

-The Times of India The National Campaign for the People's Right to Information (NCPCRI) has said the grievance redressal Bill cleared by the Union Cabinet on Thursday could become a potential game-changer, provided the government ensures that redressal can take place at the district level, and the principle of federalism is respected. The NCPRI, which includes Aruna Roy of the Rajasthan-based Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), was the organization that successfully campaigned...

-The Times of India  Indian households are allocating less of their spending to education and healthcare and more to travel and eating out than they did in the past, the latest GDP data reveals. Expenses towards education and medical care have, in fact, been declining since 2008-09, according to the data, along with a decline in spending on food. Expenditure towards medical care and health services has declined from 3.9% of the...

-Live Mint Govt reiterates it will crack down hard on tax evaders, defends steps introduced in Finance Bill to check evasion The government on Tuesday reiterated its intention to crack down hard on tax evaders and defended some of the stringent provisions introduced in the Finance Bill last week to check evasion, including granting wider powers of arrest to taxmen and making certain offences non-bailable. Finance minister P. Chidambaram, in his budget speech...

-The Hindu Evidence of tampering with, overwriting & alteration of records The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), in a report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, pointed out that several ineligible farmers were favoured and a large number of deserving small and marginal farmers left out in implementation of the United Progressive Alliance’s much-touted Rs. 52,000-crore farm loan waiver scheme. The scheme, meant to help indebted farmers in districts where suicides occur, was so...