We have elections coming up in five states, notably giant -- thus politically crucial -- Uttar Pradesh. We have an Indian cricket team seemingly determined to eat crow. We have yet another brouhaha over Salman Rushdie. But my electricity bill is in front of me, so I want to talk about food -- and those who prepare food. What, you may well wonder, is the connection between the two? The bill is made...

-The Economic Times   Bureaucracy bashing is India's favourite national vocation. And for good reason. Our bureaucracy has its good share of crooks, criminals and cheats who need to be put away - with or without a Lokpal. The simple counter-question is, does the bureaucracy have a disproportionately larger share of crooks than in other professions in India, and the data clearly does not say a resounding yes.  In fact, there is perhaps...

An independent study says some 250 thermal power projects that have got clearances may be meant just to grab land and water resources. THERE have been a growing number of headlines that speak of an energy crisis and the energy deficit in India in the last few years. The disparities in the demand-supply scenario, the increasing prospects of disruptions in the global supply of fuel and the consequent results of higher...

-PTI   Anil Ambani-led Reliance Infrastructure Ltd has challenged an order passed by the State Information Commission bringing the company under the ambit of the Right to Information Act in the Bombay High Court, arguing that it is a private company and not a public authority. The SIC on July 19 passed an order bringing R-Infra under the ambit of the RTI after observing that though it was a private company, it...

Among the people who are waiting for the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee (OC) to settle their accounts is the Delhi Lokayukta, Justice Manmohan Sarin. Justice Sarin and the OC are in a dispute over the security deposit for a house in Panchsheel Enclave that he had rented out to accommodate foreign delegates. Justice Sarin has not returned Rs 5.36 lakh out of the refundable security deposit of Rs 8.25 lakh to the...