Some members of the National Advisory Council , or NAC, are of the view that a small group in the council is driving its agenda to an extreme, making its recommendations vulnerable to government's rejection on the grounds of fiscal prudence. This not only ends wasting everyone's time, but also does a disservice to the poor and disadvantaged the council seeks to help, by indefinitely delaying progressive legislation, goes the...

At least 10 RTI applicants have been killed over the past two years, with many others facing threats in their bid to expose corruption On a Republic Day when India celebrated 61 years of justice, equality and liberty, Amar Nath Pandey says he encountered the darkest moment of his life. In late evening on 26 January, a lone assailant leaped from the folds of darkness in the street outside his house in...

The chamber said concrete steps need to be taken to promote investment, given that recent data shows the investment growth rate slowed from 38.1% in 2007-08 to 36.5% in 2009-10 The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on Tuesday called for the government to provide tax incentives on agricultural activities in the forthcoming Budget to encourage private participation and adoption of new technologies in the sector. “CII has recommended encouraging private sector participation...

The Supreme Court today hauled up the government for including soft drink industry representatives on food standard panels intended to act on complaints against them and asked it to immediately reconstitute the committees with independent experts. The top court has since 2004 been hearing a PIL filed by the NGO CPIL, which demanded that soft drink companies reveal the contents of their products, including pesticide and chemical contents, if any. In 2006,...

The budget for the next fiscal is likely to step up the target for farm credit to 4,50,000 crore, up 20% from the current year's 3,75,000 crore. With the agriculture sector seen growing at 5.4% in the current fiscal, the government will push banks to disburse more to the sector to maintain the momentum, said a senior government official. The upheavel in the micro-finance sector will also necessitate greater lending by banks. "The...