Even five years after the enactment of the pioneering Right to Information Act (RTI), penalties for delays in providing what has been sought under the law are imposed in less than 4% of the cases, an independent audit shows. The Act, which empowers citizens to demand information from the government, provides for the imposition of penalties by the Central or State Information Commission in case of delays without reasonable cause. The landmark...

The Manmohan Singh government is digging an even bigger hole for itself by claiming there was no loss of revenue from the sweetheart sale of 2G spectrum to favoured corporate houses. “Milord,” cunning lawyers have argued in countless Hindi movies, “how can there have been a murder when there is no dead body?” I was reminded of this line when I heard Kapil Sibal — who has been performing as an...

So why is the UPA hell-bent on killing its unique success story: the NREGA? Here's the inside narrative of the conspiracy. It took 47 days of a protest sit-in at Jaipur to make the state budge(1). It's notable that the objective of this protracted protest was not to coerce the Rajasthan government for an extra share of the state's resources, but to hold the government accountable to the Constitution and its...

Economics is the art of evaluating the cost of the opportunity foregone. This is a delicate skill, as are all things that dabble in what-might-have-been. It is never that difficult, therefore, to over- or underestimate the size of the opportunity cost. In the case of the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the awarding of 2G licences, the figures should certainly be open to debate. They certainly come...

‘Akshardham, CWG Village on Yamuna bank shouldn't have got nod' Neither the Commonwealth Games Village nor the Akshardham Temple should have been allowed to be built on the banks of the Yamuna, according to Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh. He proposes to issue a River Regulation Zone notification to protect riverbeds from such harmful constructions in the future. “The manner in which the Yamuna riverbed has been devastated by constructions should be a...