Since 1947, successive governments have missed innumerable opportunities to put the country on the path of sustained, inclusive growth. Time and again, quixotic ideology has led to meaningless debates, antediluvian policy and inexplicable strangulation of capacity buildup in both physical and social infrastructure. Even today, while the gap between current and projected national demand and supply is well acknowledged, the government continues to drag its feet in creating the policy...

With the government-Opposition standoff over a joint parliamentary committee probe into the 2G spectrum scam entering its 14th day, supplementary demand for grants amounting to spending of Rs 45,000 crore were passed without debate by Lok Sabha on Wednesday amid noisy disruptions. Both sides blamed the other for massive spending being decided without debate, with a repeat expected in the upper House on Thursday. Supplementary demands related to railways are expected...

Business was derailed in Parliament for the tenth day on Thursday as Opposition and the Treasury benches vociferously raised matters of corruption leading to adjournment of both the Houses, causing the public exchequer well over Rs 60 crore in the winter session till now. Amid pandemonium, both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on Thursday were adjourned for an hour barely a minute after they met and later adjourned for the...

The youth will not take no for an answer. Five years on, the RTI comes of age. At four feet something, Santosh’s energy belies her petite frame. The school dropout was introduced to RTI through activist Arvind Kejriwal, and now, at Parivartan’s Sundar Nagri office, she holds fort, helping others acquire everything from BPL and ration cards to school admissions through RTI. Threats and attacks by local authorities who dubbed her...

The Tamil Nadu government today said it will not allow cultivation of genetically modified brinjal and the earlier assurance given in this regard by Chief Minister M Karunanidhi was "final". "The chief minister had said the state will not allow Bt Brinjal. And that is the final word. We will not allow (cultivation) of Bt brinjal," Agriculture Minister Veerapandi S Arumugam informed the Assembly. The Bt brinjal issue had been firmly opposed...