In Bihar, the coupon system to distribute PDS grain fails to prevent corruption. AT the Jamaluddin gram panchayat in Patna district on January 26, 2007, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar launched an ambitious reform of the public distribution system (PDS) in Bihar: a coupon system. He claimed that it would “empower the poor and stop black-marketeering” and that it was “not a simple coupon but a powerful weapon in the hands...

Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has rejected Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar’s suggestion on modifying MGNREGA’s guidelines, saying it has not impacted the availability of workers for the farm sector. Ramesh has told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that on the contrary it has led to major increase in farm wages and kind of works being executed with most of the works being taken up during the off-season periods. In reply to Pawar’s...

Indian citizens won’t be shielded from prying by government agencies if the Union home ministry gets its way with the proposed privacy law. The ministry is insisting that intelligence and law enforcement agencies be kept out of the purview of the proposed Act, and allowed to continue monitoring the activities and carry out electronic surveillance of citizens, officials familiar with the situation said. The department of personnel and training (DoPT), which is...

-The Times of India   Bringing India's external intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), at par with international spy agencies in terms of arming it with legal snooping powers, the government recently notified it as one of the eight agencies to intercept phone calls, emails and voice and data communications 'domestically'. The other agencies in the list are Intelligence Bureau, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Enforcement Directorate, Narcotics Control Bureau, Central Bureau of...

Eminent neurologist says kids should not be robbed of their right to grow in a natural way by “restricting [their] learning competence” with education in a foreign language like English An award-winning Jaipur-based neurologist has advocated imparting primary education to children in their mother-tongue, saying it would produce youngsters possessing “fundamentally strong personalities” bestowed with wisdom, motivation, better communication skills and creativity. In his new study, Dr. Ashok Panagariya – honoured with...