After widespread dissatisfaction about the lack of transparency and oversight in critical judicial appointments, there are now signs that the government is trying to figure out how to roll back the collegium system by which judges select their own with no external inputs. The Supreme Court’s collegium, which is made up of the Chief Justice of India and four other senior judges, recommends appointments to the court after a mandatory...

The Ministry received 153 complaints of irregularities in the implementation of MGNREGA up to 2007-08; 645 complaints in 2008-09; 528 complaints in 2009-10 and 272 complaints in 2010-11 so far. With a view to make the scheme more accountable, the following steps have been taken by the Ministry:(i) States have been asked to deploy adequate number of dedicated staff with the implementing authorities. Administrative expenses, out of which salary of such...

Chief playersThe United States came to Cancun without its commanding influence as a world leader against global warming. It has failed to pass a climate change bill - again - making other countries more skeptical of President Obama's pledge to dramatically reduce the nation's carbon emissions 17 percent compared with 2005 levels. So the U.S. goal to increase transparency by persuading other nations to let outside reviewers measure their emissions...

Corruption, No. 1 national security threat, is eating into the vitals of the state, enfeebling internal security and crimping foreign policy.  India confronts several pressing national security threats. But only one of them — political corruption — poses an existential threat to the state, which in reality has degenerated into a republic of mega-scandals. The pervasive misuse of public office for private gain is an evil, eating into the vitals...

A widening corruption scandal that has touched India’s prime minister sent the country’s stock markets down sharply on Friday and threatened to tarnish the country’s image as a rising economic power. Setting off the turmoil was a report from the country’s auditor earlier this week that about $40 billion in wireless spectrum license fees had been squandered by the government’s telecommunications and information technology minister. On Thursday, India’s Supreme Court criticized...