-Live Mint The Indian state has done little to provide preventive public health services New data released by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) have once again underlined the abysmal state of sanitation in the country, particularly in rural India where two-thirds of the country lives. Only 32% of rural households have their own toilets, according to the recently released results of a large-scale survey conducted by NSSO in 2012. An additional...

A new report from Right to Sanitation Campaign in India entitled: In Deep Shit paints a gloomy picture about the position of India's sanitation, and simultaneously draws our attention to the case of ‘missing' and ‘dead' toilets. The report has questioned the claims made by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (MDWS) that India is making great strides in availing toilets to its rural population through the Nirmal Bharat...

-The Indian Express The Justice Ganguly case shows up some lacunae. For one, the sexual harassment act will have to be changed to extend to unpaid interns. There is immense pressure from women activists, the media and some political parties for retired Supreme Court justice, A.K. Ganguly, to resign as the chairperson of the West Bengal Human Rights Commission for allegedly harassing a young intern. The courage of the young intern in...

-Governance Now Professor Sanjay Kumar, co-director of Lokniti, a research programme of the New Delhi-based think-tank Centre for the Study of Developing Societies and one of our leading ‘election watchers', maintains that we must not read too much in the higher voting numbers and credits the election commission for preparing more accurate voter rolls. Excerpts from an interview with Trithesh Nandan: * What do you make of the phenomenon of higher turnouts? Everybody...

-Deccan Herald Out of 11 crore PAN Card holders, only 3.5 crore file Income Tax returns Concerned over tax collection not keeping pace with the growth in income and wealth, a Parliamentary Standing Committee has recommended that the tax department should encourage PAN card holders libel for tax to file their income tax returns. The committee, in its latest report tabled in Parliament, said that the Permanent Account Number (PAN) has been allotted...