-PTI Government today said it planned to provide direct subsidy to beneficiaries of kerosene oil and a pilot project in this regard in Alwar district of Rajasthan was yielding good results. "Direct subsidy on kerosene is planned in future ... We have to move towards it. It will be done using UID cards... We are benefiting from the pilot project," minister of state for petroleum and natural gas RPN Singh said in...

-The Telegraph Vice-President and Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari has suggested that meetings of parliamentary standing committees should be open to public or televised live, as in many western democracies. Such panels do “excellent work” but remain unsung, Ansari said as he made the proposal at a two-day orientation programme for new entrants to the Rajya Sabha that began yesterday. He said he had discussed the issue with MPs. But some of the...

The Parliament of India, the highest citadel of its democracy, recently completed 60 years. This magnificent circular edifice was inaugurated on January 18, 1927, by the then governor-general, Lord Irwin, and legislative councils had conducted its sessions here. After Independence, the Central Hall accommodated the Constituent Assembly till it completed writing the Constitution. The first Lok Sabha was constituted on April 17, 1952, and the first Rajya Sabha on April...

-The Indian Express Multiple stakeholders in internet governance may be a good idea. But who’s India to talk? Who should run the internet? States and corporations have long struggled over the question. Last October, India proposed a new model of internet governance — a UN Committee for Internet-Related Policies, which shifts control to elected governments, advised by experts, international organisations and civil society, under the UN umbrella. This would invert the current...

A probe panel of the road ministry has recommended a CBI investigation into allegations of fraud against private contractors involved in the Lucknow-Muzaffarpur highway project. The inquiry committee, instituted by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, supported findings of the World Bank Institutional Integrity Unit report, which alleged fraudulent practices and graft by private contractors involved in the Lucknow-Muzaffarpur highway project. The committee, formed in April by minister CP Joshi, recommended...