-The Indian Express The Union Cabinet has reversed its July 2006 decision to limit the disclosure of file notings to certain issues and to exclude certain departments under the RTI Act. While the Cabinet decision is welcome, a major hurdle in the path of transparency in governance is yet to be addressed as file notings of the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC), which clears appointments to more than 2,500 key posts...

-DNA The high court on Wednesday directed the state government to quickly formulate rules and regulations to ensure the safety of RTI activists. RTI activist Lingaraju, 40, was killed by three unidentified people in front of his house in Chamarajpet. The high court had taken a suo motu public interest litigation based on newspaper reports. A memo was filed by the state government contending that the it had no objections to constitute...

-The Economic Times On November 9, 2012, the government announced that from January 2013, 51 districts of the country would be subjected to Aadhaar- based direct cash transfers (DCT). We need some basic answers before we get to term the initiative as a game-changer. Aadhaar and the link with bank accounts: The Reserve Bank of India, initially having notified that Aadhaar number as valid for opening a bank account for know-your-customer norms,...

-The Indian Express Amendments to the contentious land acquisition Bill not only seek to hasten the acquisition process through tight time-schedules but also contain a provision that virtually allows the law to be applied retrospectively to cases that witnessed protests in the past. The union cabinet is due to discuss the amendments to the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill on Thursday. The changes suggest that the new law will be applicable to...

-The Hindu DHARWAD: Vice-Chancellor of the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Dharwad, R.R. Hanchinal said the research conducted by scientists from the university had proved that organic farming ensured more productivity than chemical farming in rain-fed areas. Presiding over the inaugural session of the two-day State-level workshop on ‘Plant protection in organic farming’ on the university campus here on Tuesday, Prof. Hanchinal said the outcome of a recent comparative study on organic...