Reports should be sent to all ‘climate sceptics' during the review process  Introduce the “Right to Information” to the U.N.'s climate change system, India has suggested to the body (the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) charged with bringing credibility and accountability to the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC), the climate science panel which has been in the eye of a storm over the last few months. India wants...

The PDS in Orissa does not stand for public distribution system, rather, a `perpetual dishonesty structure’ orchestrated by the Government agencies with politicians as bandleader. This is the impression of the recently submitted report of the Justice Wadhwa Committee appointed by the Apex Court to look into the functioning of PDS in Orissa. A clinical inquiry by the committee reveals how murky the system is. The malady afflicts right from the identification of...

The sale of foodgrains through the public distribution system to poor families throughout the country at highly subsidised prices is stinking of corruption, hoarding and black marketing, the Supreme Court appointed central vigilance committee said in its damning reports. After touring various states and scrutinising the operation of PDS system through fair price shops, the committee headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice D P Wadhwa used following terminology for...

For the preparation of the Commonwealth Games 2010, around Rs 17,400 crore have been spent on Delhi by the government over the past three years. The over-used word deployed by public leaders and officials to describe the city, which they hope will emerge from these exertions, is ‘world-class’. But forgotten are the men and women whose toil will make this ‘world-class’ city possible. At its peak in 2008-09, an estimated...

A quiet revolution to create a healthier India has kicked off in the east with Assam on Thursday becoming the first state in the country to introduce a bill guaranteeing the right to health and well-being. Responding to an appeal from the Centre for legislating on health rights, the state government tabled the landmark Assam Public Health Bill, 2010, in the assembly. The bill, which will be put to vote...