-The Times of India The government has admitted in response to an RTI that it has destroyed the files of nine of the 22 secretaries/principal secretaries to the Prime Minister. This was disclosed in response to an innocuous query regarding the pay given to the secretary or principal secretary to the premier. In its reply, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said that it did not have information on nine officials, including H...

-The Times of India Denials notwithstanding, the government indeed has been considering the idea of turning the Comptroller and Auditor General into a multi-member body as minister of state in Prime Minister's Office V Narayanaswamy said last week. Although the government had dropped the idea of turning the CAG into a multi-member body, agreeing with the federal auditor that the existing structure with a singular head was fine, it dusted off the...

-The Hindustan Times The UPA government's ambitious unique identification or Aadhaar project would result in saving of about Rs. 1,10,000 crore by 2020, around 58% of expenditure of major public welfare schemes, a Planning Commission study released on Saturday said. The Prime Minister's Office had given April 2014 as the deadline for disbursing cash transfer through the UIDAI platform for all major government schemes. A cost benefit analysis done by the National...

-The Times of India The UPA was caught in a fresh controversy over the comptroller & auditor general (CAG) after V Narayanasamy, minister of state in the Prime Minister's Office, was quoted as saying that the government was "actively considering" converting the federal auditor's office into a multi-member body. "It (VK Shunglu panel's suggestion to make changes in CAG) is under active consideration. The government is actively considering it," news agency PTI...

-The Indian Express Petroleum Minister Veerappa Moily on Thursday refuted Arvind Kejriwal’s accusations of the UPA government favouring Reliance Industries Ltd saying that the decisions were taken objectively “without fear or favour” and assured that his ministry would continue to uphold transparency. “The ministry is committed to upholding the rule of law and decisions are taken objectively without any fear or favour. The system is not influenced or guided by whims and...