Seeking information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act is all set to get easier. Adding a “smart” layer to the process of applying for information, the Karnataka Government has decided to set up a business process outsourcing centre to handle all applications, enquiries, and even billing. Streamlining the entire process through a website and a call centre, this project, which is pending Cabinet approval, will simplify the current application process...

Union minister for rural development Jairam Ramesh​ approved a plan to build a network of roads in rural Bihar under the ministry’s Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, clearing some of the hurdles that were holding up the construction. The ministry’s empowered panel on the rural road programme cleared the revised “core network” of roads for Bihar on 14 September. The core network includes all rural roads necessary to provide basic access to...

-IANS   Goa's illegal mining scandal is worth Rs10,000 crore ($2 billion), former deputy chief minister of Goa and Congress legislator Dayanand Narvekar on Saturday told the Justice MB Shah commission probing the scam. Narvekar, who was a cabinet minister in Chief Minister Digambar Kamat's Congress-led government until a couple of years ago, also told Shah during a public hearing at the state secretariat that constant complaints in writing to the state chief...

Comprises Lokpal Bill, laws on poll reforms, public disclosures and accountability of judges The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government is planning to introduce a slew of anti-graft laws in the winter session of Parliament: apart from the Lokpal Bill, which is with a Standing Committee of Parliament, in the works are laws on electoral reforms, public procurement, service delivery to citizens, public disclosures, and accountability of judges, among others. Union Ministers and...

For promising results, renewed commitment of another seven years essential An official review of the Union Government's ambitious National Rural Health Mission has described it as a “minor success”, adding that the results have been heartening compared to past experience in public health programmes. If this promising programme is not to splutter to a stop, a renewed commitment for at least another period of seven years is essential, it says. A report...