-The Times of India   The Madras high court has directed the Tamil Nadu school education department to finalise and publish the rules for the Right to Education Act within six weeks. The first bench comprising Chief Justice M Y Eqbal and Justice T S Sivagnanam delivering its order on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by advocate S Sathia Chandran, who said that though the act has laudable provisions, it could...

-The United Nations   A new United Nations report warns that Asian nations are at risk of electoral violence, driven by real and perceived fraud and corruption, and stresses the need for strong oversight and other measures to strengthen election credibility. In “Understanding Electoral Violence in Asia,” the UN Development Programme (UNDP) studies electoral processes in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines and Thailand, drawing lessons and making recommendations to reduce the...

-PTI   Pressing its demand for a strong Lokpal with teeth to fight corruption, the CPI has warned that the government could face "trouble" if it comes up with a bogus draft in Parliament. The remarks came after a team of civil society activists led by Anna Hazare met leaders of the Communist Party of India (CPI) to put their points across on the issue of the Lokpal and seek support for...

Rather than shutting its doors on ‘civil society’, the government should be thanking its stars that the latter wants to make law, not war. Distributing tee-shirts with this slogan would be a better use of the government’s ‘hearts and minds’ funds than the integrated action plan to counter Naxals, or the army’s tourism trips to Pune for Kashmiri schoolgirls. The UPA regime has been unprecedented for the spate of legislation that...

-The Hindu   Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is to meet a small group of editors on Wednesday morning to discuss issues ranging from corruption charges against the government to continuing inflation and unemployment. The informal interaction comes days after the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting, which took stock of the current political situation. Some CWC members were reportedly of the view that Dr. Singh should engage the media more often and dispel...