In a spate of recent cases in Punjab, information seekers are being turned away by public institutions on the ground that they are not covered under the RTI Act, and are not obliged to share information about their functioning. This despite the fact that almost all these institutions have received financial aid from the state government.   In nearly all such cases, the information seekers had to knock the doors of Information...

-The Economic Times Small and marginal farmers who constitute more than 80% of total farmer households in the country face exclusion from formal financial channels," says the Nair Committee on priority sector lending. The same report says "commercial banks have been prescribed targets since late 1960s for priority sector lending".  The banking system failed the farmers and the needy despite nationalisation, but is there a viable model that could help the millions...

After Haryana ban, illegal mining shifts to Sikar’s hills Who’s The Quarry? More than 400 active leases in the Sikar belt 1,200 trucks move out of Rajasthan Aravallis daily In Dabla alone, 50 ha of land mined Area has five small rivers, three clogged with sludge. *** The ceiling of her house has some long cracks, the roof has become unstable, the floor in some parts has caved in. When Reshmi built her house in the Dabla...

Trinamool Congress government’s policies in West Bengal are leading to suicides of small farmers, a reign of terror in the Jangalmahal area and a curbing of academic and trade union rights. Its student activists beat up students and teachers who do not profess loyalty to the party. Will the CPI(M) which led the previous Left Front government for 34 years and paid the price for its insolence and corruption...

A 38-year-old Right to Information activist, Shiv Kumar Tiwari, who had carried out a sting operation on New Delhi Municipal Council officials and Delhi Police personnel for taking bribe leading to several arrests and also filed a complaint in the sensational MCD “ghost Employees” case, has gone missing under mysterious circumstances from Ghazipur here. Mr. Tiwari, a florist who owns “Tiwari Flower.com” on Baba Kharak Singh Marg in Connaught Place, had...