-The Hindu The case pertains to clearance given for diversion of forest land at Saranda Forest in Jharkhand’s Singhbhum District to a mining company in violation of Forest (Conservation) Act in 2012. The Central Bureau of Investigation on September 9 conducted searches at the Chennai premises of former Union Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan in connection with alleged irregularities in the approval to a proposal for leasing of 56 hectare forest land to...

-Frontline.in The death of nearly 60 children in Gorakhpur because of the unavailability of oxygen can be directly attributed to the larger issue of drastic reduction in budgetary allocations for and the gross neglect of the public health system. THE death of almost 60 children, including infants, in the government-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital in Gorakhpur within a span of 48 hours raises several issues relating to the state...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Supreme Court today asked the government to be "unrelenting, stern and uncompromising" against corruption to realise the benefits of liberalisation and welfare measures, and urged the public to "rise against bribery and corruption". The bench of Justices Kurian Joseph and R. Banumathi also upheld the conviction of former IAS officer Neera Yadav under the Prevention of Corruption Act. "This is the area where the government needs to be...

-Governance Now ‘They can’t convict Kalmadi, Vadra, Lalit Modi, Mallya; but will convict transparency advocates’ I am reminded of what my teacher had told me in school: “When a society wishes to blatantly show how unjust it can be, it will crucify the best.” On June 13 when I heard about the conviction of four of the nation’s transparency champions who have given their entire lives to promoting transparency and empowering the...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: PM Narendra Modi has asked all secretaries to put collective effort to improve the condition of 100 most backward districts in the country. In his interaction with the top bureaucrats on Monday, the PM said this should be adopted on a mission mode and the various departments work as a team and not in silos to ensure the goal is achieved during "definite short time-frames". Sources...