The Conflict of Interest Bill introduced in the Rajya Sabha is a welcome step to control the grey areas in which “public private partnerships” are conducted. AMONG the many things that have proliferated in the economic boom of the brash new India is conflict of interest. So widespread, comprehensive and many-tentacled has this feature become that it is often no longer even recognised to exist, much less to be a...

-The Times of India The country loses Rs 60,000 crore a year due to congestion (including fuel wastage), slow speed of freight vehicles and waiting time at toll plazas and checking points, a study on operational efficiencies of freight transportation by roads has claimed. It said vehicles crawl at an average speed of less than 20 kmph on some key corridors such as Mumbai-Chennai, Delhi-Chennai and Delhi-Guwahati while it's only 21.35 kmph...

A commission set up to investigate the scourge of rampant illegal mining has slapped a showcause notice on the Jharkhand government seeking an explanation on how four firms were allowed to extract iron ore far in excess of stipulated limits in the Saranda region between 2008 and 2010. In a letter dated April 30, 2012, the commission headed by retired judge M.B. Shah has given the state mines and geology department...

It is said that only God and a few good men and women run India. One such man is P H Kurien. For readers unfamiliar with his name, Kurien was India's Controller General of Patents, Designs & Trade Marks until March 12, 2012. On March 9, 2012, just three days before he left office, he issued the first-ever compulsory licence in India for the manufacture of a drug still under patent....

Amid protests over India's steepest-ever petrol price hike last week, many are now beginning to ask the question: Is the government milking the common man to keep its oil companies profitable? Consider these: Each time, you fill your car with a litre of petrol in Delhi, the Centre gets richer by Rs. 14.78 and state government earns another Rs. 12.20. In 2010-11 ( the latest figures available), the Centre and state governments...