-Zee News Information provided by a person while applying for passport can be disclosed under the Right to Information Act, the Central Information Commission (CIC) has held. "Given our dismal record of mis-governance and rampant corruption which collude to deny citizens their essential rights and dignity, it is in the fitness of things that the Citizen's Right to Information is given greater primacy with regard to privacy," Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi...

-The Times of India The national project to give unique identity numbers to all Indians, and enable welfare payments electronically, is now facing a snub from the very part of the government that funds it, and has been its most staunch supporter so far: The finance ministry. Two moves initiated by the banking division in the finance ministry over the past three months appear to duplicate and bypass the work being done...

Noting that many young people join Indian Police Service (IPS) only when they don't get their first choice of job in the civil services - specifically Indian Administrative Service (IAS) or Indian Foreign Service (IFS) -- a parliamentary panel has suggested a separate examination for IPS where "attitude and aptitude" of aspirants are thoroughly tested so that the quality of 'service' is not compromised. Asking the government to "explore the possibility...

-Reuters NEW DELHI (TrustLaw) - About 60 percent of Indian women have no access to family planning services, giving them little control over their bodies and slowing efforts to boost human development indicators, said the head of the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA). Human development indicators cover health, education and living standards. India, Asia's third-largest economy, is set to overtake China as the world's most populous nation by 2030. But, despite its impressive economic...

Remote controls are identified as technical devices which are used for various purposes ranging from the launching of space-ships to the monitoring of toy cars. But of late, these devices are being used to direct policies for nation states which are formally sovereign. We speak here of the powerful lobby of international credit rating agencies like Standard and Poor's (S&P), which has just delivered its sermon that India is no longer...