-The Hoot The drafting of the application should be such that it points towards the specific documents required in relation to the information sought. An extract from the section for information seekers in the 2013 guide. FOR INFORMATION SEEKERS Method of Seeking Information A citizen, who desires to obtain any information under the Act, should make an application to the Public Information Officer of the concerned public authority in writing in...

-Wall Street Journal Blog The political editor of one of India's leading English-language weekly magazines, says he will take legal action over his sacking after he was allegedly offered thousands of dollars to leave the company quietly. "I got a termination letter after I refused to take 1.5 million rupees ($23,788) to leave the company on congenial terms," said Hartosh Singh Bal who left Open magazine on Wednesday. "I won't stay silent. I...

-The Hindu After a long and painful period of neglect, India promises to devote attention to the issue of preparing all children for primary schooling. The draft National Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) policy aims to end the "current laissez faire situation" that has led to the mushrooming of expensive crèches, play schools, nursery schools and so on that adhere to no particular standard. On the other hand, there is...

-The Hindu     Governments have ritually abused the latitude granted by the Indian Penal Code and the Constitution to harass, intimidate and arrest scores of writers, journalists and artists It is common knowledge that Article 19 (1) (a) of the Indian Constitution lays down that "all citizens shall have the right to freedom of speech and expression"; it is also common knowledge that this fundamental right is not absolute, as the immediately following...

-PTI NEW DELHI: The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) launched its multi-lingual website to reach out to various sections of the society. "The website, www.uidai.gov.in, will now appear in five regional languages: Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi and Tamil in addition to Hindi and English," an official release said. UIDAI is planning to systematically add additional language microsites to facilitate ease of access to all sections of the society. The second phase of the...