A draft Bill aimed at redressing complaints against junior government officials is likely to be introduced in the winter session of Parliament to check graft at the lowest level, where most citizens interact with the administration. The proposed Public Services Grievance Redressal Bill will be available to the public for comments and feedback before it’s introduced in Parliament, rural development minister Jairam Ramesh said. The proposed law comes at a time when...

The Centre proposes to merge the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and the yet-to-be-launched National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) in the 13th Five-Year-Plan period. The two ambitious Missions will be separate entities in the upcoming 12th Five-Year-Plan period, after the launch of the urban health mission, but subsequently merged. In its proposals to the Planning Commission, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has said that the National Urban Health Mission...

As a national debate rages over the Indian poverty line, in the heart of Bandra, one of Mumbai’s richest suburbs, in a shanty with barely enough standing space for two adults, three-year-old Priya Doiphode, clad in a red tee shirt, lies listless on a string bed. Priya is one of the 83,243 children in Mumbai who are malnourished, according to government data, a statistic that makes Mumbai the most malnourished...

The National Campaign for the People's Right to Information (NCPRI), which — along with other civil society groups — held a two-day convention here on its draft Bills on Grievance Redress and Whistleblower Protection, has urged the government immediately to put up the drafts for wide public consultation. Earlier this year, the NCPRI unveiled a “Basket of Lokpal measures” intended to address corruption and grievances relating to delivery of services. Among...

-NDTV Profit   Some of India’s biggest and most-respected entrepreneurs have released an open letter to the government. The group which includes Wipro’s Azim Premji, Anu Aga of Thermax and HDFC's Deepak Parekh, refers to the anti-corruption Lokpal Bill that is meant to be introduced soon in Parliament. The industrialists write, “The Lokpal Bill is only one small but critical step in the national task of weeding out the plague of corruption...