-PTI In a serious blow to transparency regime in the country, the Madras High Court has said RTI applicants must give reasons for seeking information as it gave relief to its Registry from disclosing file notings on a complaint against a chief metropolitan magistrate. A division bench comprising justices N. Paul Vasanthakumar and K. Ravichandrababu said an applicant must disclose the object for which information is sought and also satisfy that...
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The Poisoning of Punjab -Sean Gallagher
-PulitzerCentre.org "We can say that Punjab is dying now. There is no doubt. Punjab is the food basket [of India]. Now we can say it is the disease basket." Dr. Pritpal Singh sits in his simple office in the Baba Farid Center for Special Children, located in the small town of Faridkot, in India's Punjab region. Since 2003, Dr. Singh has been here, working with fellow health professionals at the center, offering therapeutic...
More »For a new paradigm of social justice -D Shyam Babu and Chandra Bhan Prasad
-The Hindu The central policy challenge for the new government is how to sustain social gains while ensuring that Dalits can participate more meaningfully in the economy, by sharing in the fruits of economic growth while contributing as well In his address to the nation on Independence Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his intention to "take a solemn pledge of working for... the welfare of the poor, oppressed, Dalits, the exploited...
More »PM Narendra Modi launches Jan Dhan Yojana; to focus on combating financial untouchability
-The Indian Express In his speech, PM Modi said that opening bank accounts is a step towards joining economic mainstream. Launching his government's first big ticket social welfare programme, the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday gave a call for eradicating what he termed as "financial untouchability" of the poor by opening at least one bank account for every family in the country in less than...
More »The Planning Commission is dead. Long live the new avatar. -Paranjoy Guha Thakurta
-The Goan In the second decade of the 15th century, after the French ruler Charles VI was succeeded by his son bearing his name, a phrase was coined: "The king is dead, long live the king". The phrase literally meant that the transfer of sovereignty occurs simultaneously from the moment of death of an earlier monarch. Over the years, the phrase came to signify superficial change: the more things change,...
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