The arrest of Suresh Kalmadi on 25 April marked yet another scene in the prolonged drama surrounding the Commonwealth Games held in Delhi in October 2010. Yet the general media focus on Kalmadi may have served to distract attention from the many other acts of omission and commission that mark the sordid history of that extravagantly planned and deeply flawed public show. In these other actions, there are stories of funds...

The United Nations is predicting that come Oct. 31, the world population will hit the seven billion mark - and keep expanding till it reaches 9.3 billion by the year 2050. Much of this increase, according to the Population Division of the U.N.'s Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), is projected to come from 58 high-fertility countries: 39 in Africa, nine in Asia, six in Oceania and four in Latin...

The grievance redress system in the country is “poor” and public service providers “lack accountability”. This is indicated by the fact that 95 per cent of the households that were asked to pay a bribe ended up doing so. This is revealed by a new survey, ‘India Corruption Study: 2010', prepared by the Centre for Media Studies. The report, based on a survey of around 10,000 households across 12 major cities,...

Mayawati has brought rural health mission under Chief Secretary's control Visits slain CMO's house; killing was linked to alleged financial bungling under NRHM Rita Bahuguna files RTI plea on mis-utilisation of Central funds under NRHM A day after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati brought the implementation of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) directly under the administrative control of the Chief Secretary, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi sent a strong political message when...

It was indeed an unusual ''social movement''. A group of ''activists'' who had banded together to draft one version of a bill that would establish a statutory institution to investigate corruption in the political establishment sits in protest demanding the acceptance and passage of its version of the bill. The protest has elements of a social drama inasmuch as it fronts an elderly leader, Anna Hazare, with Gandhian credentials, a...