Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has blamed US-based NGOs for whipping up a campaign against the Russian-aided Kudunkulam atomic power station in Tamil Nadu, causing a major setback to the project. Singh, in an interview to the American journal 'Science' being published on Friday said, "The atomic energy programme has got into difficulties because these NGOs mostly, I think, based in the US, don't appreciate the need for our country to increase...

It’s not just the NCTC — we need to provide a statutory basis and oversight mechanisms for all our intelligence agencies   The protest by eight chief ministers, characterising the Union government’s decision to give powers of search and arrest to the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC ) under Section 43 (a) of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act 1967 as an assault on federalism, comes in the wake of a “sticky bomb”...

They operate from a cramped floor in a commercial building near Bhikaji Cama Place in Delhi, and work on a heavy roster of hearings day in and day out. However, the five posts of information commissioners in the Central Information Commission have drawn applications from all categories of people — from scientists, lawyers and journalists to, most of all, retired or soon-to-be retired bureaucrats.   Despite the heavy workload and its low-profile...

The government's zero transparency enabled Nuclear Safety Regulatory Authority (NSRA) Bill has got thumbs down from a Parliamentary standing committee. The Atomic Energy Department had introduced NSRA Bill for setting up independent nuclear safety watchdog in Parliament last year with specific clauses limiting the applicability of the Right To Information (RTI) Act, the government's first such move. The bill propose to incorporate additional proviso in section 8 --- listing exempted clauses ---...

-The Hindustan Times The government is pushing for making it mandatory for recipients of funds from abroad to clearly identify themselves. The reason: intelligence agencies caution that some small money transmission agents are funneling funds for terror activities. As recording all recipients’ photographs has been found cumbersome, the authorities, on the RBI’s advice, may demand Aadhar unique ID numbers — after the numbers are made available — even from individuals receiving less than...