-Live Mint While natural disasters grab our attention, everyday events like illness drag most people into poverty  In a small town of Gujarat, I met Chandibai, a woman, about 50 years of age. Fifteen years previously, her husband, Gokalji, had owned a general-purpose shop in the town centre. The family also owned a house and some agricultural land. In 1989, Gokalji developed an illness that confined him to bed, sometimes at home...

-The Hindu   It may lead to illegal grabbing of government land: communiqué    Governor H.R. Bhardwaj has returned the Karnataka Land Revenue (Amendment) Bill 2012 to the State government on the grounds that the “policy of regularisation of encroachment of government land directly encouraged illegal occupation of government land.” According to a communiqué from the Raj Bhavan, the amendment to the Bill sought to substitute the existing section 94C of the Karnataka Land...

-The Times of India PANAJI: Officers not furnishing information on time may land in trouble as the State Information Commission (SIC) has already penalized two panchayat secretaries of Penha da Franca panchayat and Siolim-Marna panchayat. The SIC, hearing the Sachin Kalokhe petition for delay in furnishing information under RTI Act, imposed a penalty of 7,000 on the Penha da Franca panchayat secretary and directed that the amount of penalty should be recovered...

-The Hindu The response from the officials is not encouraging, says Commissioner The Andhra Pradesh Information Commission has observed that awareness on Right to Information Act among common man was high. The response from the officials was however, not encouraging. The misuse of the RTI Act also came to the notice of Commission, which is contemplating taking suitable action in this regard. Addressing a press conference here on Sunday, Information Commissioner P....

-Kafila.org Almost a century ago, Katherine Mayo published a book titled ‘Mother India’ that criticized the Indian way of living, and Rudyard Kipling  spoke of the ‘White Man’s Burden’. These writings reflected the colonial perspective that what colonizers did was in the best interest of the colonized people. Consequently, most well-meaning citizens of colonial powers were alienated from the horrible plight of the colonized. Purpose well served – unopposed exploitation. Years later,...