Beginning 1 July, details of projects, minutes of board meetings and a whole lot else will be made public under a disclosure policy. “India’s right to information law is an inspiration for us,” says Isabel Guerrero, the Bank’s Vice-President for South Asia and one of the architects of the disclosure policy. The policy itself is new, but the process has been on, with voices like Guerrero’s within the Bank pressing...

In the wake of reports of violation of ethical guidelines and exploitation during the “clinical trials” of HPV (human papilloma virus) vaccine, meant to prevent cervical cancer among women, the Centre on Wednesday advised the State governments to suspend the vaccine programme until the issue is settled. Director-General of the Indian Council of Medical Research V.M. Katoch told The Hindu that he had asked the Health Ministry, the State governments and...

A nation where hungry children are forced to eat mud has no right to call itself a superpower or a civilised nation. What makes such reports frustrating for someone like me, who has been feeding poor children for the past one decade, is that reaching food to hungry children is not complicated or costly. It costs very little to give a child the required amount of calories and supplements she...

Concerned over disturbing trends in the media, including commercialisation and trivialisation of content, corporatisation of the sector and the phenomenon of paid news, the call for a “media watch group” was made at a round table discussion on “Markets, Media and Democracy” here on Tuesday. “There is a need for a public auditing of the media, declaration of the revenue earned and checking on fraudulent news. It would be done best...

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has been mandated to monitor the implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009. A special division within the NCPCR will undertake this task in the coming months and a special toll-free helpline to register complaints will be set up. The NCPCR has invited all Civil Society groups, students, teachers, administrators, artists, government officials, legislators and members...