While Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan is proud that the State has an impressive 98.69 per cent disposal rate of requests under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the murder of two campaigners who used the law to good effect is a blot. First, it was Satish Shetty at Talegaon, near Pune, who was killed on January 13, and more recently Dattatray Patil at Ichalkaranji, in Kolhapur district, on May 22....

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh iterated the need to have a larger political consensus on the issue of financing of political parties and elections, replying to a question during his press conference on Monday. But that is merely one, though critical, aspect of the wider need for political reforms in the country. It is an area sorely in need of attention. For, even issues like building infrastructure, investing in health care...

More than a million people settled along the Kosi river in the Indian state of Bihar live an uncertain and nomadic life in "floating villages" because of frequent flooding. Whenever Babuji Sah walks towards his village, Birbar, he says he feels like an ageing camel struggling to find his new address in the Sand-filled desert. That is because Birbar is forced to move location every three to four years. The pathways...

With pulses going off the menu of poor people in the country, scientists from across the country gathered at Palampur Agriculture University (PAU) to mull over the issue. About 250 scientists deliberated on the steps that could be taken to increase the yield of major kharif pulse crops in the country in a three-day conference held in the university. While addressing the scientists in the conference, Tej Partap, Vice-Chancellor, said several...

If some are still wondering why the census cannot blank out caste, their answer came bobbing in a country boat today. Bill Gates, who usually crosses continents on his $45-million private jet, took the boat that shuddered in the swift waters of the Kosi to reach a remote Bihar village that had hardly ever seen a district official. One of his first questions was if caste divisions in the country’s backward hinterland...