-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Election Commission (EC) has written to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) to keep tabs on all suspicious transactions of politicians, especially those contesting elections, and report them to enforcement agencies for investigation. The directive to the FIU is a bid to cleanse elections of illicit money use. The FIU is also preparing dossiers on asset details of all candidates contesting Lok Sabha and assembly polls,...

-The Times of India In the decade or so that i was at the Planning Commission, i always had advisory responsibility for the food ministry/public distribution system, among other issues of development policy. It did not take very long to find out that the fundamental problem with the system was about so-called "leakages" abetted by corruption: One soon learnt that the Food Corporation of India (FCI) was one of the most...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Delhi's homeless may be brought under the fold of the Delhi government's flagship Annshree Yojana as the government is having trouble finding eligible beneficiaries to meet the two lakh target set under the Cash for food scheme. So far limited to vulnerable households identified by a survey of 2008-2010, the scheme will now be made "broad based". Under the scheme, a monthly subsidy of Rs 600...

-The Hindu     The promise of near-universal coverage is now nowhere in sight. And the UPA's seemingly fretful efforts to get the measure through do not appear to be convincing The nation is watching with trepidation the play of politics over the National Food Security Bill, which envisages food security for 67 per cent of the population by providing 5 kg of rice, wheat or coarse cereals per person per month at subsidised...

-The Economic Times The information commissioner's order asking that stringent disclosure norms prevail on political parties is a welcome move. Transparency with regard to political parties, especially when it concerns funding, is extremely important in a democracy as this is where political corruption begins. In the past, there have been allegations of quid pro quo between big corporate houses, who fund parties in elections, and policy changes effected to suit them. Some...