—PTI With Law Minister Salman Khursheed raking up a controversy over “administrative control” of the Election Commission, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has assured the poll body that the government was committed to upholding its functional autonomy guaranteed under the Constitution. Mr. Khursheed said in a TV interview that the Law Ministry had control over the Election Commission, prompting Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi to write to the Prime Minister on December 29,...

-The Hindu   ‘Neo-liberal policies fine-tuned to global capitalist accumulation to blame' Neo-liberal policies fine-tuned to global capitalist accumulation are increasing poverty, mass deprivation and unemployment besides undermining food security in India, economist Utsa Patnaik said on Friday. Delivering the inaugural ‘T.G. Narayanan Memorial Lecture on Social Deprivation' under the auspices of the Media Development Foundation and the Asian College of Journalism here, Prof. Patnaik said contrary to the claims by the Centre about...

-The Times of India   Accusing the state government of hatching a conspiracy of rendering them jobless, farmers of 50 villages of Indore district launched their protest against the government. The agitating farmers will gather at Kali Billod here on Friday under one umbrella the 'Kishan Shoshan Virodhi Manch' to intensify their protest where Team Anna member Medha Patkar will join them in the protest against land acquisition. The farmers are resisting the...

Yesterday was the last day of the auto Expo 2012 in New Delhi. It should have been the first day of ending our obsession with cars and instead, realise what this fascination is doing to our insides.  Over a decade ago, Delhi was a heroic city. It had successfully reduced air pollution by shifting buses and three-wheelers from diesel to CNG. But now, Delhi's residents are choking again. Recently, this paper...

PROFESSOR Mohan Gopal, director of the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies (RGICS), New Delhi, is a strong proponent of the government's Lokpal Bill. The RGICS provided key inputs to the making of the government's Lokpal Bill and the Constitution Amendment Bill. Prof. Mohan Gopal, a scholar in constitutional law, headed the National Judicial Academy, Bhopal, for five years and the National Law School, Bangalore. He was appointed by Parliament...