What is a whistleblower protection law? A whistleblower is defined as someone who exposes wrongdoing, fraud, corruption or mismanagement. In many cases, this could be a person who works for the government who would report misconduct within the government or it could be an employee of a private company who reports corrupt practices within the company. The law that a government enacts to protect such persons who help expose corruption...

The well-intentioned food security Bill, cleared by the empowered group of ministers (EGoM) and now awaiting Cabinet approval, continues to raise issues that have not been fully resolved. Apart from the fact that it falls short of the Congress party’s election promise of guaranteeing nutritional security for the poor, it is still not clear how the government intends to mobilise the food stocks required to implement such a Bill across...

The Empowered Group of Ministers that met here on Thursday has advised the Union Food Ministry to get the National Food Security Bill vetted by the Law Ministry before placing it in the Union Cabinet for approval. The proposed Bill envisages provision of 25 kg. of wheat or rice to BPL families at Rs. 3 per kg per month. However, despite burgeoning wheat stocks, the EGoM chaired by Union Finance Minister...

The Centre will set up a Central Food Security Fund to monetarily compensate the Below Poverty Line (BPL) beneficiaries of the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) who fail to get the proposed mandatory 25 kilograms of wheat or rice per family per month at a subsidised rate of Rs. 3 per kg. The compensation would be at the economic cost of the foodgrains so that an entitled beneficiary can buy grains...

The Central budget of 2010-11 is a further step in the realisation of a vision of India vibrant with the income, wealth, saving, education and the entrepreneurial energy of the top 5-10 per cent of the population and the rest of Indians, serving that minority and surviving as barely literate, malnourished multitude.  With the accession of Rajiv Gandhi to power, a vision began to germinate. That vision was that of...