-Frontline Corruption tends to be greater in periods when there is a state-engineered redistribution of wealth in favour of a few at the explicit or implicit expense of the many. Liberalisation is one such period. IT cannot be verified and may not be true. But, the view that the record of graft and corruption during the two-term, nine-year rule of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is the worst in India's post-Independence...

-Live Mint The GoM findings, draft will be submitted to the Supreme Court before 10 July Taking a cue from last week's adverse comments by the Supreme Court, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh constituted a group of ministers (GoM) to draft a law that will eventually seek to insulate the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from political influence. Finance minister P. Chidambaram, external affairs minister Salman Khurshid, law minister Kapil Sibal and minister of...

-The Hindu The representatives of the recognised national and State-level political parties on Friday expressed satisfaction over the functioning of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT), developed by the Election Commission (EC) and made some suggestions for further improvement. The Commission said "the suggestions will be considered by the Expert Committee and the EC." Informed sources said the improved VVPAT could possibly be used for field...

-The Hindu Kolkata: In a setback to the Mamata Banerjee government, the Calcutta High Court on Friday directed that panchayat polls in 17 districts be held in three phases with the government fully compensating the shortfall in security forces to the satisfaction of the State Election Commission. Justice Biswanath Somadder rejected the government's arguments on all the contentious issues in its writ petition and directed that it inform the Commission of...

-The Indian Express As the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) zeroes in on appointments made during the tenure of the Trinamool Congress in the Railway Ministry to understand the process of top level appointments, political circles are abuzz about Mamata Banerjee's unusual silence over the case of bribery in Railways. Except for a statement by party spokesman Derek O'Brien on the day the news broke, the TMC has remained uncharacteristically oblivious of...