The right step would be for Manmohan Singh to visit Jantar Mantar without further loss of time to persuade the Gandhian to call off his fast, and also explore a compromise. Jantar Mantar in New Delhi is a hot favourite of the average tourist in the summer season. As the temperatures soar this year, the monument is drawing even greater crowds, mainly to savour the electric atmosphere generated by a 72-year-old...

With an eye on Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh early next year, Vilasrao Deshmukh’s Rural Development Ministry appears to have decided to pin down the Mayawati-led BSP government over the implementation of the UPA’s flagship rural job guarantee scheme (NREGS) in the state. The Rural Development Ministry has constituted a 10-member committee to look into loopholes in the implementation of the scheme in the pocket boroughs of Congress president Sonia Gandhi...

The Lok Pal (anti-corruption body) Bill has generated widespread interest in the past few days. The Bill is an attempt by the government, under massive pressure due to corruption charges, to gain some of its lost ground. However, civil rights activists, including Anna Hazare, Swami Agnivesh, Kiran Bedi and Arvind Kejriwal, have termed the draft legislation as weak and demanded that fifty per cent of the members in the committee drafting...

Collaborative effort to ensure a corruption-free India ‘Lokpal will be an independent entity' ‘Appointment through a selection panel' With veteran campaigner against corruption Anna Hazare's fast unto death at Jantar Mantar here entering its second day on Wednesday , the focus has shifted to the Jan Lokpal Bill that was drafted last year as a collaborative effort by civic society to ensure a corruption-free India. The Bill was first drafted by retired Supreme Court...

Distribution of basic food grains and fuel at controlled prices every month through the Public Distribution System (PDS) could be the largest service provided by the Indian State, touching as it does over 65 million families through a network of nearly half a million retail shops. Given that the urban middle class has little stake in the health of the PDS, there have to be some compelling reasons for the...