The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have agreed to commit Rs 500 crore for the execution of health projects in selected districts of Bihar. The 'in principle' agreement towards this end was finalised during a daylong meeting here recently between State officials led by Principal Secretary (Health) C K Mishra and a visiting Gates Foundation team. The 11-member Foundation team, headed by Ashok Alexander, consented during the meeting to offer "co-operation...

The Maharashtra government will amend its Development Control Rules, in a bid to contain criminalisation of realty. It also plans to strictly implement the provisions of Indian Penal Code and Criminal Procedure Code to stem the growing nexus between builders and gangsters and easy flow of black money into the sector. "If builders are found guilty, they will be blacklisted. They will be debarred from any contract from the government or...

Violence in West Bengal’s western districts has reached crisis proportions. Each day, one or more cadre member or sympathizer of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPM] is killed either by Maoists or the Trinamul Congress (TMC). The Maoists have found common cause with the TMC, a breakaway from the Congress Party in Bengal. Mamata Banerjee, whose authoritarian populism draws from both Juan and Evita Peron, leads the TMC. Backed...

Like India’s topmost judge, lawyers’ regulatory bodies have been made accountable to the public under the Right to Information Act. The Central Information Commission (CIC) has ruled that bar councils are public authorities under the RTI Act and cannot refuse to share information lying with them with the public. The ruling is likely to kick off a rush of RTI applications to the bar councils, professional bodies that are expected to maintain...

The government needs to allocate more funds for public health. The mismatch between the declared objective of universal healthcare through the public health system and the actual level of expenditure remains serious.  One of the three most important planks on which Barak Obama won the U.S. presidential election was the country’s healthcare system, which he promised to fix. Indeed, the most important legislative measure initiated by Mr. Obama so far...