Social activist Anna Hazare, who entered the second day of his indefinite fast, on Wednesday slammed the Congress for "misleading" the people by dubbing his agitation as unnecessary and premature. 72-year-old Hazare, who is demanding enactment of an anti-corruption bill to give wider powers to the Ombudsman, said, "The party's (Congress) statement is misleading people. Why is this agitation unnecessary and how is it premature? 42 years the nation has been...

Cash transfer as substitute for state service provision is a dangerous recipe for callously anti-poor and corrupt governance. THE staggering number of recent articles, papers and books on the virtues of giving cash in place of public services to the poor has created an impression that a sort of epidemic has broken out. Economists, policymakers, bureaucrats and newspaper commentators are all infected by it and are in turn infecting others. The central...

Distribution of basic food grains and fuel at controlled prices every month through the Public Distribution System (PDS) could be the largest service provided by the Indian State, touching as it does over 65 million families through a network of nearly half a million retail shops. Given that the urban middle class has little stake in the health of the PDS, there have to be some compelling reasons for the...

Karnataka Lokayukta Justice N. Santosh Hegde has expressed his reservations over activist Anna Hazare's decision to fast until the Union government passes the Jan Lokpal Bill (Citizens' ombudsman Bill). Mr. Hegde, who, along with Mr. Hazare and others, helped draft the Bill, said: “I wish he [Hazare] had waited for some time.” He was speaking to The Hindu on Tuesday after returning from New Delhi, where he participated in a consultation called...

Sometime this month, Justice N Ramamohana Rao of the Andhra Pradesh High Court will deliver a verdict that will directly impact earnings of the 114 million people who work under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), the Central government's work guarantee programme. The verdict will also indirectly impact earnings of the 400 million workers and labourers who toil in India's factories and fields for 'minimum wages'. The question Justice Rao...