-IANS Attempts to push for poll reforms are yet to yield the desired results despite an appeal by the Election Commission to the government, a Right to Information (RTI) query filed by an activist has revealed. A response from the prime minister's office (PMO) to an RTI query indicated that little had been done on barring candidates with criminal records from contesting Elections, ensuring financial transparency and making public the audited accounts...

-The Times of India GURGAON: A local RTI activist, O P Kataria, who has been actively campaigning againstGurgaon MLA Sukhbir Kataria, has accused the latter of harassing him. The MLA is clouded by a controversy over alleged fake voter ID cards in the last assembly Elections. According to O P Kataria, about 10 policemen barged into his house on Tuesday morning and tried to fraudulently implicate his wife in a land case. "These...

-The Christian Sciences Monitor Wealthy Western nations are financially exhausted and unwilling to commit to help fund greener development for poorer nations. Will this week's conference in Rio find any solutions? So what happens if you hold a UN conference on sustainable development, and world leaders make speeches, and sign treaties, and then nothing happens? This, of course, would be absurd. The problem, says Bill Easterly, a development expert at New York University,...

-The Hindu Business Line   Reservations for SC/STs may not impact redistribution as much as they can alter social prejudices and hierarchies. June 5, 2012: This year, India celebrates the 20th anniversary of the 73rd amendment. One of the most striking aspects of the modern Panchayati Raj defined by the amendment is the systematic reservation of political positions (pradhans, sarpanchs, and ward members) for villagers from the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes (SC/ST)....

-The Times of India Fresh from clinching his party's nomination for the post of president, finance minister and presidential hopeful, Pranab Mukherjee found himself in the corruption crosshairs of Team Anna. Arvind Kejriwal, Team Anna's most vociferous member, on Sunday demanded an independent probe into graft allegations against Mukherjee before Elections to the country's highest office are held.  Kejriwal claimed the inquiry should be completed before the presidential Elections as once Mukherjee...