Any move by the government to dump the public distribution system for supply of food items to the poor is likely to face a tough challenge from various NGOs, which are planning to move the Supreme Court seeking its intervention in the matter. Armed with a survey report in by NGO, Lok Shakti Manch in various slum clusters in Delhi on whether PDS should be substituted with transfer of cash to...

-The Hindu “The aim of education is social development, and not profit-making. ‘Education shops' must either not be allowed to function or must not have profit as their motive,” said Anil Sadgopal, presidium member, All India Forum for Right to Education (AIF-RTE). Announcing that the State Platform for Common School System (SPCSS) along with the AIF-RTE will be organising a two-day all-India conference for ‘Abolishing commercialisation of education and building a...

-DNA Slamming private educational institutes that often use RTI for accessing the question papers of various examinations and making it public for their commercial gains, the Delhi high court said sundry information, unrelated to transparency and accountability, should not be allowed to be misused or abused. A division bench of acting Chief Justice A K Sikri and justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw said this while setting aside the order of the Central Information...

John Vidal, who was in Rio for the '92 Earth summit, looks back at that momentous event, and how the 2012 version compares Helicopters thundered up and down the chic Copacabana and Ipanema beaches. Tanks guarded the bridges and tunnels. The favelas were in lockdown, schools closed and supermarkets stood empty. Unexpectedly, George H W Bush, the 41st US president, flush with success at the collapse of communism, had arrived in...

-The Hindustan Times Though the high courts in the country are supposed to deliver justice in Right To Information (RTI) cases, they are the very institutions that  make implementation of the law difficult, a study by a government institute has found. The study conducted by the Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration, which evaluates the efficacy of the transparency law, finds that many high courts have prescribed rules for RTI in violation...