-The Hindustan Times As a teary-eyed World Trade Organisation (WTO) director-general Roberto Azevedo hailed the landmark trade deal at Bali, Indonesia, on Saturday after five days of gruelling negotiations, it was India, led by commerce minister Anand Sharma, who won plaudits for successfully piloting the grand-bargain for drawing up a permanent solution to food subsidies. The deal also makes it mandatory for member countries - as part of a trade facilitation agreement...

-The Hindustan Times Bali: After five days of hard negotiations, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on Saturday reached a historic deal designed to ease movement of goods across countries and allow developing nations more options to feed their poor - as India successfully lobbied in favour of state-funded welfare schemes. "For the first time in our history, the WTO has truly delivered," WTO director-general Roberto Azevedo broke down while announcing the deal...

-The Hindu     While it is apparent that due process has been subverted to the advantage of a few by the political executive, it is equally true that there has been some politicisation of the civil service Two recent events have focussed attention on the relationship between the political executive and public servants. At the international conference on corruption organised by the Central Bureau of Investigation on November 11, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh...

-The Hindu Officials told not to act on oral orders from political executive To insulate the Bureaucracy from political interference and to put an end to frequent transfers of civil servants by political bosses, the Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Centre and the States to set up a Civil Services Board (CSB) for the management of transfers, postings, inquiries, process of promotion, reward, punishment and disciplinary matters. A Bench of Justices K.S....

India's landmark Right to Information Legislation is called the biggest single step since independence to build transparency in governance. However, its remarkable success is owed only to just 0.3 per cent of Indians who file RTI applications. It's anybody's guess as to what would be the impact if even one or two per cent of Indians began to ask tough questions to hold their rulers accountable. It is noteworthy that...