Seven meetings and a stalemate. What now for the Lokpal Bill? It’s War Out There Seven meetings on, government and civil society reps drafting the Lokpal bill are split on four key issues Ambit     * Civil society: PM and Supreme and High Court judges should be brought under Lokpal’s purview     * Government: This is constitutionally untenable; PM should get immunity or should be investigated with adequate safeguards Scope     * Civil society: MPs can...

“Government can no longer convince people its hands are clean” A former Union Revenue Secretary, E.A.S. Sarma, has accused the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) of turning a “blind eye” to his repeated warnings about “alleged irregularities” committed in auditing capital costs and allowing price and other concessions to the Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) in the KG basin and Cairn India in Rajasthan. In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Manmohan...

-The United Nations   Five United Nations agencies have banded together to call for urgently addressing gender-biased sex selection favouring boys, a common practice in many parts of South, East and Central Asia that they say fuels a culture of discrimination and violence. “Sex selection in favour of boys is a symptom of pervasive social, cultural, political and economic injustices against women, and a manifest violation of women’s human rights,” says a...

Certain provisions in the rules notified under the IT Act cause concern about the security of sensitive personal information. ON April 11, the Union Ministry of Communications and Information Technology notified new rules under the Information Technology Act, 2000, to regulate the use of the Internet. This led to widespread apprehensions that the government and private persons might gain free access to sensitive personal information concerning Internet users. The government, however,...

-The Economic Times   Farm credit flow has registered a quantum jump during 2010-11, accordign to figures put out by the government, although apprehensions have been expressed that there is urgent to enlist new loanees rather than give credit to time and again to the same borrowers. Credit institutions disbursed Rs. 4,26,531 crore during the year against the target of Rs.3,75,000 crore, an official statement said here. Agency-wise, Commercial Banks with...