-The Economic Times Imagine a rural family of five. Mom. Dad. Two kids. And Grandma. Assume too that they are below the poverty line. The day is coming when this family will have to give its biometrics out to myriad agencies.  You know that Nandan Nilekani's Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) or the Registrar General's National Population Register (NPR) has been collecting biometrics for a while now.  But a set of other...

-The Times of India The Central Vigilance Commission has asked the CBI to examine a complaint about alleged losses suffered by the public exchequer in the allocation of coal blocks between 2006 and 2009, in what can potentially be fodder for civil society as well as the opposition seeking to attack the government over Coalgate. Although the complaint of BJP MPs Prakash Javadekar and Hansraj Ahir was forwarded by the CVC to...

Now that the SC has upheld the 25 per cent clause, Centre and states must work on implementation Now that the Supreme Court has upheld the constitutional validity of reservation of 25 per cent of admissions at the entry-level in private unaided schools for disadvantaged sections, focus should shift to the implementation of this provision. The Right to Education Act stipulates that private unaided schools “shall be reimbursed expenditure so incurred...

Soon, anyone would be able to file an RTI application over the phone, with help and guidance from a call centre as well as through a website While the government is consistently blamed for diluting the RTI (Right to Information) Act in several ways besides making illogical amendments at the state level, it is gearing up to make filing of RTI applications by just making a phone call. Citizens will not...

The Supreme Court has taken steps to lay down a code for media reporting. This attempt at prior restraint on the media is a dangerous move with precedent from authoritarian polities. In a context where the judiciary has been lax in defending the media from attacks which seek to curb its freedom, such unilateral moves will not remedy bad reporting but rather make conditions worse for the media to play...