Withholding Talegaon land deal info sought by friend of slain activist Satish Shetty tantamount to violation of RTI Act, State Info Commission tells government agencies A day after slain RTI activist Satish Shetty's friend and fellow RTI campaigner Arun Mane was attacked, allegedly for pursuing matters that Shetty had been after before his death, the Pune bench of the State Information Commission yesterday issued a pathbreaking order when it asked for...

Many endosulfan sufferers in Kerala still not recognised NARAYANA Vokalliga from Belur village in Kasaragod breathed his last on November 20 just as his son was explaining how his father had suffered from exposure to endosulfan for 30 years. The former employee of the Plantation Corporation of Kerala used to spray the toxic pesticide manually in the corporation’s cashew plantations at Nanjamparamba estate. When the corporation switched to aerial spraying, Narayan prepared...

The economy shows consistent signs of growth. The challenge in the new year is to make development more equitable and broad-based… 2010 was a year of relief that soon grew into despondency. We were relieved that India had pulled out of the deepest post-War recession relatively unscathed. The soundness of its cautious macro-economic management was underlined once again and the US economy is also looking like getting slowly back on...

The Central government's newly proposed RTI rules make its intentions suspect. GOVERNMENTS which have only superficial commitment to the promotion of human rights often come under considerable pressure from within to impose stealthily restrictions on their exercise. They try to introduce such restrictions without much publicity, seek to execute them in a tearing hurry, and couch them in legal jargon. The Central government's proposal to notify the Right to Information...

Around 100 cooperative sugar mills in Maharashtra have lost one round of a battle on income tax (I-T) arrears dating back to 1992-93, with an appellate authority rejecting their argument on dues. If the decision, by the commissioner of income tax (appeals), is not appealed again, the mills may have to pay Rs 2,500 crore in arrears. Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil, chairman of the Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories in Maharashtra, told Business Standard:...