-The Hindu When a new Chief Information Commissioner is appointed, he or she will find a mammoth 10,000 Right to Information appeals pending. The new government's delay in appointing a new chief has led to the pendency shooting up, much of it surrounding new policy decisions taken by the government. The Chief Information Commissioner heads the Central Information Commission, the body that hears appeals from information-seekers who have not been satisfied...

-The Hindu They have neither sought review of CIC ruling nor challenged it in court Seventeen months after the Central Information Commission ruled that the Right to Information Act applied to six national political parties, none of them has complied with the Act or appealed against it. A full Bench of the commission, comprising Information Commissioners Vijai Sharma, Sharat Sabharwal and Manjula Prasher, had posted a hearing on the parties' non-compliance with its...

-The Hindu "Employers, education providers, and youth live in parallel universes" India has a larger proportion of youth population than the rest of the world, according to the United Nations Population Fund's (UNFPA) State of the World's Population Report, released on Tuesday said. "Today's record 1.8 billion young people present an enormous opportunity to transform the future," UNFPA Executive Director, Dr. Babatunde Osotimehim, said in a statement. "Young people are the innovators, creators,...

-The Hindu 30 per cent of rural and 20 per cent of urban households said they practised untouchability Just five per cent of Indians said they had married a person from a different caste, says the first direct estimate of inter-caste marriages in India. The India Human Development Survey (IHDS), conducted by the National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER) and the University of Maryland, also reported that 30 per cent of rural...

-The Hindu Bihar, Haryana and Rajasthan have the highest proportion When the results to the Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly elections came out two weeks ago, the northern State had produced twice the proportion of women legislators as its western counterpart. This isn't an exception; States with poor records on gender equality are consistently producing more female MLAs. Using Election Commission of India data, The Hindu found that as of today, Bihar, Haryana and Rajasthan...