The official line is simple. Since we cannot afford to feed all the hungry, there must only be as many hungry as we can afford to feed. There was irony in the timing of the petrol price decontrol order. The decision, which also covered major hikes in diesel and kerosene prices, and affects hundreds of millions of people, came even as Manmohan Singh advised world leaders in Toronto on the need...

A law empowering Indians to seek information from government to promote accountability and transparency has brought change to urban India, but has largely left out the country's rural poor, social activists say. The Right to Information (RTI) Act - similar to the Freedom of Information Act in the United States - was enacted almost five years ago and is aimed at providing a practical way for all citizens to access...

Chanchala Devi always wanted a house. Not a mud-and-stick hut, like her current home in this desolate village in the mineral-rich, corruption-corroded state of Jharkhand, but a proper brick-and-mortar house. When she heard that a government program for the poor would give her about $700 to build that house, she applied immediately. As an impoverished day labourer from a downtrodden caste, she was an ideal candidate for the grant. Yet she...

The Centre and states together account for 70% of the 3 crore cases pending in various courts in India -- or over 2.1 crore cases, making government the largest litigant in India. Now, the Centre has formulated a National Litigation Policy (NLP), which will help both it and the states -- which are only too eager to adopt it -- shed this shameful tag in the next four years and...

Eminent citizens have petitioned PM Manmohan Singh asking him to ban all forms of child labour for those under 14 years of age. Spearheaded by international child rights organisation `Save the Children', 45 eminent members of society have demanded that the Child Labour Act be amended to remove contradictions between the Child Labour Prevention and Regulation Act (CLPRA) and the Right to Education (RTE) Act that provides education as a...