-The Times of India The Comptroller and Auditor General is likely to make a strong pitch for scrapping all the controversial allocations of coal mines during its presentation to Parliament's Public Accounts Committee. Sources said the auditor looks set to cite total lack of transparency in the recommendations made by the screening committee for allocation of coal blocks worth thousands of crores. In its presentation to the PAC likely next week, the...

-The Hindu The parliamentary stalemate continues on one of the greatest corruption scandals in Indian history. Allocation of natural resources has been a subject matter of public debate in the last two decades, particularly with the entry of the private sector in infrastructure development. Minerals are an important natural resource. The private sector has a great role to play in development of mineral-based industries. However, the policy of allocation of these...

-The Hindu “I seek the indulgence of the House… 3. …I want to assure Hon’ble Members that as the Minister in charge [for a part of the time covered by the report], I take full responsibility for the decisions of the Ministry. I wish to say that any allegations of impropriety are without basis and unsupported by the facts. 10. The observations of the CAG are clearly disputable. 11. The policy of allocation of...

-The Hindu The Comptroller and Auditor-General’s report on the allocation of coal blocks, reviews how it took seven-and-half years to move the allocation procedure for captive coal blocks from a discretionary procedure to competitive bidding that was demonstrably transparent. It turns out that the process began within six weeks of UPA-I coming to power in 2004. Ironically, the amendment to the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) (MMDR) Act rules for auction...

A close reading of the Political Science textbook shows that it is complex, moves beyond pat answers, and treats the Constitution as a living document. It was produced in the light of the National Curriculum Framework 2005, which in itself was a major attempt to democratise education, and reverse the National Curriculum Framework 2000 which was casteist and sexist. Kumkum Roy (kumkumr@yahoo.com) is with the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru...