Reacting to the proposal by the government to amend the Right to Information (RTI) Act, over a 100 civil society activists and academics have written to Prime Minister manmohan singh asking him to abandon the “ill-advised move.” An amendment in this landmark legislation would be a “retrograde step” at a time when there was a popular consensus to strengthen it through rules and better implementation. The Act and its use...

The right to information act (RTI) which is hailed as a great leap forward in the direction of transparency in governance is under serious threat. The UPA government that showcased the historical act as one of its achievements in the last Lok Sabha elections now seems to be bowing down to the system’s high and mighty by proposing amendments which seem designed to take the sting out of the people’s...

The Indo-Asean FTA provides an opportunity to be more engaged with the region This is an important week for Prime Minister manmohan singh. Over the weekend, at the Fourth East Asia Summit in Thailand, he will witness the final fruition of the second most important foreign policy initiative he took during his first term in office — the India-Asean Free Trade Agreement. This should ensure he will be in better...

India is ranked a poor 65th in battling hunger, according to the Global Hunger Index for 2009. The report, released on Wednesday by the International Food Policy Research Institute, German aid group Welthungerhilfe and Irish aid group Concern Worldwide said the number of malnourished people was rising as a result of recent events. “The current situation of food crisis, financial crunch and global recession has further undermined the food security...

India may be forced to cut down on the number or compromise on the quality of model schools promised by Prime Minister manmohan singh in 2007 because of a failure to execute the plan till now. For more than two years, central and state bureaucrats have struggled to define model schools, evolve funding and management mechanisms and coax private partners to chip in — while costs have soared. The cost of starting...