In the good old days, there were the Asian Games under Indira Gandhi. Inaugurated by the Empress on her own birthday, November 19, 1982, they seem like a fairy tale now. No leaking roofs weeks before the show; no front-page shockers about crores paid to shady firms; everything going like clockwork under Her Majesty’s eagle eye. Definitely no portly, shifty-eyed Suresh Kalmadi. At that time, there was no Organising Committee. Under...

It explicitly names newspapers and channels — including some of the biggest groups in the country — seen as having indulged in the “paid news” practice. The report traces the emergence of the paid news phenomenon over years and phases Seeks a pro-active role from the Election Commission in initiating action against offenders “The phenomenon of ‘paid news' goes beyond the corruption of individual journalists and media companies. It has become pervasive,...

Customs has detained over 1,250 tonnes of wheat imported from Australia in 50 containers at Chennai port. The consignment was found to contain more than permissible levels of pesticide chloropyrifos. Three clearing agents were arrested on charges of attempting to get clearance for the consignment using fake documents. The CBI is also investigating the background of the agents and the importer to find out why they were eager to obtain...

Central Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi recently took the extraordinary step of unilaterally releasing the minutes of the October 14, 2009 meeting between Union Minister Prithviraj Chavan and Central and State Information Commissioners on a proposal to significantly amend the Right to Information Act, 2005. The meeting's importance lay in the fact that it saw the hopeless isolation of the government side (Department of Personnel and Training, Ministry of Personnel, Public...

Food prices have shot up by more than 20 per cent in the course of the past 12 months. A vast proportion of the nation is being battered by the price rise — the fixed income group, the working classes, landless peasantry and small farmers who have to buy at least a part of the grains they consume from the market. There is, however, no upheaval among the suffering people....