-The Hindu Saving the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) — the centrepiece of UPA-I’s achievements in the social welfare sector — from its many critics in government and the media who view it as a drain on the exchequer will head the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC)’s agenda in the coming months. At a meeting of the reconstituted NAC on Friday, its members discussed the role a re-energised...

-The Statesman The state government is planning to engage self-help groups and co-operatives to run ration shops, state food and supply minister Jyotipriya Mullick said today at Writers’ Buildings.   He said a large number of ration dealers are involved in corruption and the state government will gradually abolish individual dealership for the smooth functioning of the ration system.   The state government is preparing a draft regarding this matter and will send...

-The Guardian  Use of Sodium Pentothal to secure confessions – classified by some as torture – still common in certain regions of India It is the sort of scene that belongs in a film noir, not a 21st-century democracy: an uncooperative suspect being injected with a dose of "truth serum" in an attempt to elicit a confession. But some detectives in India still swear by so-called narcoanalysis despite India's highest court ruling...

-The Times of India Seventeen months after it registered a FIR (first information report) in the Adarsh society scam, the CBI on Wednesday filed a chargesheet against 13 politicians, bureaucrats and retired military officers. The case involving the 31-storeyed tower in tony Colaba had led to a chief minister stepping down and seven high-profile personalities, including a former BMC chief and retired military officers, getting arrested.  The charges filed were for criminal...

-The Hindu Most people remain at the mercy of a venal administration that, encouraged by the absence of an independent watchdog, exploits them relentlessly   The state of affairs in the country is characterised by rampant corruption at all levels leading to a breakdown in the rule of law and lack of accountability all around. One can say that there is a complete collapse of governance in the country. Something drastic needs to...