Last month, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh exhorted the bureaucracy to be fearless, saying, "Civil servants should fight the tendency of not taking decisions because of the fear that things might go wrong and they might be penalized for that." The PM was just the latest to express concern about increasing bureaucratic stasis-foreign visitors have remarked upon it and even TOI has written about it earlier. But his words have clearly failed...
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Government keeps Chawla report, Mining Act review from Supreme Court-Shalini Singh
-The Hindu Both documents extensively discuss need for competitive bidding for scarce natural resources The fate of the Ashok Chawla Committee report on the allocation of natural resources suggests a wider government unwillingness to accept competitive bidding, auctions and market-linked pricing for scarce, natural resources lies at the heart of its 2G review petition. The Committee was set up on January 31, 2011, at the peak of the 2G scam expose and just...
More »Media Follies and Supreme Infallibility by Sukumar Muralidharan
The Supreme Court has taken steps to lay down a code for media reporting. This attempt at prior restraint on the media is a dangerous move with precedent from authoritarian polities. In a context where the judiciary has been lax in defending the media from attacks which seek to curb its freedom, such unilateral moves will not remedy bad reporting but rather make conditions worse for the media to play...
More »No free mines with ultra mega power plants anymore: Coal ministry-Soma Banerjee
Bidders for upcoming ultra mega power plants in Odisha and Chattisgarh will have to pay a reserve price to the state government for coal mines that come bundled with the project, ending a long established policy regime in which the mines were allotted free. The coal ministry is in the process of finalizing norms for calculating the reserve price for the mines, bidding norms and a model agreement for which it...
More »Spectrum order issues: Prez reference in SC
-The Business Standard The Union government on Thursday approached the Supreme Court with a presidential reference on various issues relating to its recent judgment in the 2G spectrum scam. The apex court, meanwhile, would take up the government's review petition tomorrow. The presidential reference, under Article 143 of the Constitution, and the review petition raise similar issues. The main concern of the government is the perceived interference of the judiciary in the...
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