-AP The microfinance industry pursued a path of rapid business growth in recent years; two investigations now link it to debtor suicides   First they were stripped of their utensils, furniture, mobile phones, television sets, ration cards and heirloom gold jewellery. Then, some of them drank pesticide. One woman threw herself into a pond. Another jumped into a well with her children. Sometimes, the debt collectors watched nearby. More than 200 poor, debt-ridden residents of...

Corruption has become a serious problem, defying solutions. To curb it, several measures are needed apart from the Lokpal bill, the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill and the Public Interest Disclosure and Protection of Persons Making the Disclosures Bill, otherwise known as the whistlblowers protection bill. The three bills, in their present form, do not appear capable of achieving the avowed objective. Like the Right to Information Act, these bills...

-The Economic Times   The government's version of the Lokpal Bill gets most things right. The entire executive, represented by its senior layers, including the Prime Minister, comes under its purview. The Central Bureau of Investigation, which deals with all kinds of crime and not just corruption, is rightly kept outside the proposed Lokpal's administrative control but will investigate cases referred to it by the Lokpal. Nor is there any attempt to...

-The Hindu   Rajya Sabha MP and Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi chaired the 30-member parliamentary panel that presented its voluminous report earlier this month on the Lokpal Bill 2011. The report has points of divergence with both the official Lokpal Bill draft and the Team Anna version. (The Union Cabinet on Tuesday night approved a Bill for the creation of the Lokpal with constitutional status that will have no control over the...

Bills aimed at making judges, public utilities more accountable, and protecting Whistleblowers The Union Cabinet on Tuesday cleared three crucial anti-graft Bills aimed at making judges and public utilities more accountable and protecting Whistleblowers. The Bills come at a time when the government is being attacked by both the opposition and anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare​ and his team. Analysts are doubtful about the intentions of the Congress party-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA). The...