Some of the NGOs and Institutions which sponsored trips of Kiran Bedi over the past two years say they were categorically told “she flies Business class” and were not aware if she travelled Economy. They added that they took her bills at “face value”.   “We were told that she only flies Business class. We had no idea she was availing Economy class tickets,” Irene Almeida, administrator of Mumbai-based Shri Mahila Griha...

The National Mission to improve the delivery of justice is at work. In October 2009, on the basis of a Vision Document adopted at a judicial conference in New Delhi, the Government of India approved in principle a National Mission to reduce pendency and delays in the judicial system and enhance accountability through structural changes, higher performance standards and capacity-building. Many past attempts to achieve the goals did not yield results...

Four days after The Indian Express reported how, in at least 12 instances, Team Anna member Kiran Bedi raised inflated air fare invoices to overcharge her host NGOs and Institutions, Bedi announced today that the “balance amounts” were being returned “forthwith”. “Foundation trustees have passed resolution directing me (to) travel strictly as per invite. This leaves no room for discretion...Trustees have instructed travel agent to return the balance amounts forthwith,” she...

-The Economist   The world’s population will reach 7 billion at the end of October. Don’t panic IN 1950 the whole population of the earth—2.5 billion—could have squeezed, shoulder to shoulder, onto the Isle of Wight, a 381-square-kilometre rock off southern England. By 1968 John Brunner, a British novelist, observed that the earth’s people—by then 3.5 billion—would have required the Isle of Man, 572 square kilometres in the Irish Sea, for its standing...

With institutional healthcare being prohibitively expensive, more women in rural India are choosing to deliver at home than in hospitals and healthcare facilities, says a new report brought out by Chittorgarh-based NGO, Prayas, in partnership with Oxfam India. The 'Study of the trends in out-of-pocket payments in healthcare during National Rural Health Mission period (2005-2010)', released on October 12 in the national capital, was conducted across five Indian states - Assam,...