-DailyMail.co.uk Your friendly neighbourhood NGO worker may have been crying themselves hoarse for years over social ills, but there is a high chance that the organisation he or she represents lacks financial transparency. Nearly 25 lakh NGOs across the country, most of whom receive funds worth crores of rupees from the government and abroad, came under the Supreme Court's scrutiny on Monday after the CBI submitted that only 10 per cent of...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Central Information Commission (CIC) has been headless for the past five months, spawning an unprecedented backlog of applications and fears the delay could sound the "death knell" for transparency. Over 200 people - other commission members and retired bureaucrats - are vying to become the chief information commissioner, according to activist Lokesh Batra who had filed a plea on the matter under the Right to Information Act...

-The Hindu When the National Democratic Alliance government amended the land acquisition Act through an ordinance last week, it promised to set farmers and industry on an amiable path to mutual benefits and development. Land acquisition under the 1894 Act had been marked by violent protests, even police firings at farmers. The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LARR) Act, 2013, is the first law on...

-Economic and Political Weekly The key to improving the quality of healthcare services in India and reducing costs at the same time can be found by enacting legislation which lays down minimum standards of patient care. In the absence of such standards and the reluctance of health insurance companies to standardise either price or quality, healthcare services continue to be expensive and of doubtful quality. Developing standards of patient care by...

-The Hindu MHA says it will not compromise on national interest After taking action against the international environment group Greenpeace, the government has clamped down on four American NGOs working in the same field - Avaaz, Bank Information Centre (BIC), Sierra Club and 350.org. Over the past month, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has directed the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to stop all foreign funding into the accounts of these NGOs...