This is the second term of the UPA and till now we have always seen Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi, the UPA chairperson, working in perfect harmony but NDTV has learnt that there is one issue that they disagree, on that of RTI Amendments. It's a rare occasion when the Prime Minister has stood firm and refused Congress president Sonia Gandhi's request. In a letter to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi...

It is not just the irony. Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh had recently over-ruled the clearance by his ministry’s Genetic Engineering Approval Committee for the cultivation of Bt brinjal, thereby placing an indefinite moratorium on this genetically modified vegetable. But the Philippines, considered a pioneer in food research, have chosen to rely on that very report of the GEAC. That country’s science and technology minister has written a letter praising the...

The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved the Women’s Reservation Bill, 2008, that seeks to reserve 33 per cent seats for women in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies. The Parliamentary Standing Committee has approved the 108th Constitutional Amendment Bill in its original form with minor changes, authoritative sources told The Hindu after the meeting. The Bill was tabled in the Rajya Sabha in 2008 and was subsequently referred to the Parliamentary...

India has notified education as a fundamental right for all children between 6 and 14 years, enabling them and their parents to legally demand schooling from the government for the academic session beginning April 1. Eight years after Parliament amended the Constitution recognising education as a fundamental right, the government has finally notified the Amendment and a law was passed last year to make the right a reality. The notification,...

The Left parties would raise a demand to scrap the “archaic” Land Acquisition Act, 1884, as it facilitated land acquisition by big corporates, who took advantage of the acute distress of farmers, Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat said here on Sunday. “Why are they [the Centre] delaying the scrapping of the Act?” she said. “There is utter hypocrisy in land reforms and distribution in the country.”...