-Live Mint To maintain his constant stream of RTI petitions, Agrawal says he gets ideas from day-to-day observations, news reports, government insiders, whistle-blowers and journalists. In the summer of 1985, a cloth merchant in Chandni Chowk, the crowded market in the old quarters of Delhi, received a call in response to a letter he had written to the papers asking why his favourite weekly television serial, Rajani, could not be aired daily...

-The Times of India Anticipating what farmers support could mean to Samajwadi Party in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the Akhilesh government doled out sops worth Rs 5,432.37 crore for agriculture and allied activities to benefit the group. Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav also reiterated his government's commitment to scrap the old land acquisition policy and come up with a farmer friendly version soon. Stating that loans were a stress that haunted a...

A delay in the onset of monsoon by 3-4 days over the Kerala coast won’t jeopardise India’s farm prospects in the crop year starting June 1 as sowing usually picks up with the arrival of the seasonal showers, according to outgoing agriculture secretary P K Basu. In an interview, Basu told FE that the rainfall in June, however, holds the key. ‘‘If there are scanty showers in June, sowing may be...

-Reuters SUPALI: Two years ago, Vilas Yelmar took out a 200,000 rupee ($3,610) bank loan to develop a small grape orchard in a dusty hamlet southeast of Mumbai. The bank has repeatedly asked for the loan to be repaid, but Yelmar, whose annual income has risen to 2 million rupees, has spent the money on a new sport utility vehicle and a lavish family wedding. He is one of an increasing number...

The Conflict of Interest Bill introduced in the Rajya Sabha is a welcome step to control the grey areas in which “public private partnerships” are conducted. AMONG the many things that have proliferated in the economic boom of the brash new India is conflict of interest. So widespread, comprehensive and many-tentacled has this feature become that it is often no longer even recognised to exist, much less to be a...