-The Economic Times Anti-graft crusader Anna Hazare on Sunday shot off a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, asking him to replace the 'weak' Lokpal bill with a "really stringent'' one.  Similar letters, with a few variations, were sent to Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, BJP president Nitin Gadkari, his Samajwadi Party counterpart Mulayam Singh Yadav and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati.  These parties are the main contenders in the assembly polls in...

-The Telegraph   Prakash Karat today said the spate of farmer suicides was the fallout of the “collapse’’ of the Mamata Banerjee government’s crop-procurement system and that it was “unfortunate’’ that cultivators were “suffering” within eight months of Trinamul coming to power. “The central committee expressed serious concern at the growing number of farmer suicides in Bengal. There are reports that 24 farmers have taken their lives. This reflects not only on the...

As you read this, the Unique Identity (UID) programme is likely to have enrolled 200 million Indians. The UID, if it is allowed to, will eventually become the world's largest database of human biometric markers - fingerprints, photo and iris scans. It could go on to 400 million by the end of the year and 600 million by next year. What good is this? If you talk to opponents concerned with civil...

The lesson for India after Durban is that it needs to formulate an approach that combines attention to industrialised countries’ historical responsibility for the problem with an embrace of its own responsibility to explore low carbon development trajectories. This is both ethically defensible and strategically wise. Ironically, India’s own domestic national approach of actively exploring “co-benefits” – policies that promote development while also yielding climate gains – suggests that it...

The Union government and the Planning Commission will take a decision on the new Below Poverty Line (BPL) cap only after a report is submitted by the Parliamentary Committee on the Food Security Bill and the completion of the Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC). As things stand, divergent views have already surfaced raising a question mark on the fate of the Food Security Bill. Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen said...