-Live Mint To maintain his constant stream of RTI petitions, Agrawal says he gets ideas from day-to-day observations, news reports, government insiders, whistle-blowers and journalists. In the summer of 1985, a cloth merchant in Chandni Chowk, the crowded market in the old quarters of Delhi, received a call in response to a letter he had written to the papers asking why his favourite weekly television serial, Rajani, could not be aired daily...

-The Indian Express   Rich countries must stop lecturing developing countries and accelerate their own efforts to cut emissions There is no shortage of people telling India what to do on low-carbon growth, but there is a shortage of understanding of what India is doing. Even the UNDP in its recent Asia Pacific Human Development Report urges emerging economies like India to do more for climate change. If one appreciates what India’s emissions are...

While the government wants India to tighten its belt, the Planning Commission can afford to, well, flush with cash.  On Wednesday, Commission chief Montek Singh Ahluwalia said that Rs 35 lakh spent on two toilets in his office was not public money down the drain.  Ahluwalia explained that these were not toilets, but "toilet complexes."  Each of these complexes can accommodate 10 people at a time. He did not specify whether taxpayers would...

A day after the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) said finance minister Pranab Mukherjee was considering an increase in excise duty on diesel cars, a consensus seems to be building within the government, with the oil ministry supporting the move. Following this, key stakeholders involved in taking a decision on increasing excise duty on diesel vehicles are likely to meet on Wednesday, according to three people, including a top...

-The Hindu The 65th World Health Assembly meeting in Geneva has identified universal health coverage as a key imperative for all countries, if their goal is to consolidate the public health advances achieved so far. Several countries have been working to reform their health system over the past two or three decades. The Assembly, which is the decision making body of the World Health Organization, adopted the concept of Universal Health...