-The Indian Express The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed its September 2012 ruling that "only" serving and retired judges of the apex court and chief justices of state high courts can head the central and state information commissions. Passing an interim order pending its decision on the review petition filed by the Centre against the verdict, a bench led by Justice A K Patnaik stayed the direction making it mandatory for information...

KEY TRENDS   • According to National Sample Survey report no. 583: Persons with Disabilities in India, the percentage of persons with disability who received aid/help from Government was 21.8 percent, 1.8 percent received aid/help from organisation other than Government and another 76.4 percent did not receive aid/ help *8   • As per National Family Health Survey-4 (NFHS-4), the Under-five Mortality Rate (U5MR) was 57.2 per 1,000 live births (for the non-STs it was 38.5)...

-The Times of India CHENNAI: One of the three convicts on death row for the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, AG Perarivalan, will on Monday be on a videoconference with Central Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra on a complaint against Rashtrapati Bhavan and the ministry of home affairs on a petition seeking to know why his mercy plea was rejected in August 2011. A notification on the videoconference was fixed three days ago...

-The Times of India NAGPUR: After voting rights if there has been any other weapon which has empowered an Indian citizen it is the Right to Information (RTI). RTI is used to seek information about matters which affect the aamadami. How much of information is being handed out is still a contentious issue, but the act has definitely created a battalion of social activists. An RTI activist is not exactly the harried...

-The Times of India HYDERABAD: At a time when the central government is formulating ways to 'strengthen' the not-so-adequately used Right to Information Act 2005 (RTI) in the country, here is a man from AP who has been penalised by the state information commission for using the RTI a little too frequently. Turns out that E Sivaramanjaneyulu, a resident of Navapala village in Anantapur district, dashed off over 100 RTI applications,...