-Live Mint Electoral reforms are not the forte of law ministers. But they can avoid damaging a battered system The resignation of Ashwani Kumar as law minister has brought cheer to a group of people who do not have much to do, at least directly, with the coal block allocation controversy. These are people working on electoral reforms. This is because ever since becoming law minister, Kumar had been consistent in his...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The UPA is strenuously denying that this campaign is its earthy version of the NDA's "India Shining" campaign, but few are buying the denials. Launched as a "multi-media" campaign to highlight its achievements in two successive terms at the Center, it has been christened by political observers are UPA's " Bharat Smiling" campaign. The spirit of the campaign, says the publicity material given out by the...

-The Business Standard Bodies established under the Constitution fall under RTI and hence do co-operatives, but more clarity is needed Bangalore: The recent news about co-operatives coming under the Right To Information (RTI) Act saw many excited activist and individuals. Till now, Maharashtra is the only state to have ratified the 97th Constitutional Amendment that came about in March 2012. Orissa is learnt to have notified the amendment while Gujarat has rejected...

-The Indian Express A sound whistleblowers' protection law is long awaited. It languishes in Parliament at the system's peril Nandi Singh, a resident of a remote village in Assam, was brutally attacked with axes in September 2012 as a result of a complaint filed by him regarding irregularities in the functioning of fair price shops supplying rations under the public distribution system. He succumbed to his injuries on the way to the...

-The Hindustan Times The Delhi high court on Thursday sought the Centre's reply on a public interest litigation which alleged that public information officers (PIO) and the appellate authorities under the RTI Act are "resorting various tactics to avoid providing information" to information seekers. A division bench of Chief Justice D Murugesan and Justice Jayant Nath issued notices to the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions, Delhi government, Central Information...