Veteran activist Anna Hazare's fast-unto-death gathered steam on its second day as he pressed for a stronger anti-graft Lok Pal Bill through greater involvement of civil society - a protest he has dubbed as the second Satyagraha. Hazare wants equal representation from civil society in drafting the Lok Pal Bill. The debate on some of the proposals put forward by both Hazare and the government on the contentious bill that has been...

Right to Information Act (RTI) activists have planned a state-wide agitation to protest against the politicisation of the State Information Commission. A meeting of RTI activists held in the city on Sunday had agreed on an action plan on this score. Accordingly, the Save RTI Campaign would begin with a state-wide rally to sensitise people. Activists have alleged politicians were treating the RTI as a government department dividing information commissioners’ positions...

The Manmohan Singh government and the Congress leadership appear to have overcome initial jitters and hardened their stand on the campaign launched by social activists led by Anna Hazare who began a “fast-unto-death” at Delhi’s agitation hub Jantar Mantar this morning. The Congress suspects that the entire campaign has been hijacked by the RSS which, the party feels, is looking for ways to destabilise the government after some Sangh leaders were...

A study ranks States on availability of budget documents, completeness of information These States should adopt practices to improve public access to budget information They should also produce a key to budget documents and a statement on funds Maharashtra ranks seventh among 10 States in a study of transparency in State budgets released in February. The State plan does not provide much information on the Scheduled Caste sub-plan and does not share details of...

“National organisations of health research should come together to provide effective stewardship” Proportion of published papers increased from 0·4 % in 1988 to 1·8 % in 2008 Only 1/4 public health research reports rated as being of adequate quality Expressing concern over the scarcity of research on the routine health-information system in both reports and published papers, which is crucial to track the response of the health system to the health needs of...