District-level committees also to scrutinise any instances of ‘paid news' The constitution of an Expenditure Monitoring Division in the Election Commission of India indicates that the ECI is stepping up its efforts to tackle ‘paid news' and other abuses of money power during elections. The 2009 elections, to the Lok Sabha and to some State legislatures, saw a spate of complaints as millions of rupees were spent by powerful political parties...

Video Volunteers, a Goa based chapter of an international community media portal is inviting application for its India Unheard program. It is the second round of program under which selected candidates would be trained to make video reports from their area focusing issues, concerns, actions, innovations, traditions etc related to communities. It’s a one year old endeavor to provide fellowship for citizen journalism.      The Fellowship is open for Hindi speaking...

It's been nearly a year since the ‘paid news' syndrome — an appalling industry-wide violation of media ethics and a media-related electoral malpractice — was brought to people's attention by a section of the media. The issue still remains in the public domain, drawing critical comment and protest every now and then. The large-scale practice of paid news, particularly during the run-up to elections, has the potential of misleading the...

Public can lodge complaints against judges with a national oversight committee The bill will mandate judges to declare assets and liabilities Oversight committee to be headed by a retired Chief Justice of India The Union Cabinet on Tuesday approved a bill providing for a mechanism to deal with complaints against judges of the High Courts and the Supreme Court. The Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill sets judicial standards and makes judges accountable for their...

The Lokpal system will shortly be implemented in Madhya Pradesh for ensuring transparency in the work process of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNRGES). ''A separate computer room will be provided to each village panchayat building in 23,000 panchayats and job cards will be renewed to those MFNRGES districts that have completed five years,'' state Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Gopal Bhargava said at a meeting of state...