KJS Ahluwalia, a mine owner in Orissa, is the country's top taxpayer in the individual category for 2010-11. Two other mine owners from the state, Prasanta Ahluwalia and Indrani Pattnaik, also figure in the top 10 taxpayers' list. Income tax officials in Rourkela said Ahluwalia, owner of an iron ore mine and a mini steel plant in Keonjhar, paid Rs 50 crore as advance tax in the last quarter. He paid...

Veteran activist Anna Hazare's fast-unto-death gathered steam on its second day as he pressed for a stronger anti-graft Lok Pal Bill through greater involvement of civil society - a protest he has dubbed as the second Satyagraha. Hazare wants equal representation from civil society in drafting the Lok Pal Bill. The debate on some of the proposals put forward by both Hazare and the government on the contentious bill that has been...

Why are the erstwhile RTI campaigners so alarmed five years after it became law? Why so many dharnas, rallies, conventions and hunger-strikes all over again? Part of the reason is that the silent revolution that the RTI has spawned needs to be defended from surreptitious alterations and manipulations, and partly because the RTI activists are being threatened, harassed and assaulted by the corrupt and the powerful, often with the connivance...

The CBI should be taken out of the purview of the Right to Information Act (RTI) to block information requests that could put lives of investigators at risk, solicitor general, Gopal Subramanium has advised the government. Subramanium has recommended that the CBI be exempted in light of the "complex and dangerous situations in which the Central Bureau of Investigation has to work". "Its officers need to be protected from dangers which...

Unlike the 2G telecom scam which he blamed on compromises required for running a coalition government, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has accepted responsibility for the Supreme Court striking down the appointment of P J Thomas as chief vigilance commissioner. "I respect the judgment of the Supreme Court and I accept my responsibility," the PM said in Jammu on Friday, admitting that the buck stopped with him since the CVC decision did...