In the good old days, there were the Asian Games under Indira Gandhi. Inaugurated by the Empress on her own birthday, November 19, 1982, they seem like a fairy tale now. No leaking roofs weeks before the show; no front-page shockers about crores paid to shady firms; everything going like clockwork under Her Majesty’s eagle eye. Definitely no portly, shifty-eyed Suresh Kalmadi. At that time, there was no Organising Committee. Under...

With nearly 60% of the country’s population unbanked and the government pledging to bring banking to the lowest stratum of society, the Indian Institute of Management, Indore (IIMI), has decided to do its bit on financial inclusion. For its annual management summit Ahvan, the institute has decided to unveil a programme called Samanvay, where IIMI students will help underprivileged people in and around the campus open bank accounts and get...

Ten bonded labourers from Orissa, including three women, were rescued from a hollow block unit in Tiruneermalai near Tambaram on Monday. Staff from the office of the Revenue Divisional Officer, Tambaram, rescued them with the help of two non-governmental organisations with police protection on Monday morning. They were brought to Tambaram and handed certificates identifying them as “victims of forced labour” that entitled them to government rehabilitation funds. They were also...

EVEN though the Right to Information Act guarantees citizens their right to know and expose corruption in government offices, increasing attacks on RTI activists have put this most important right in jeopardy. The RTI Act was enacted after a long struggle by civil rights organisations. However, those who dare question the ways of the powers that be and expose them are eliminated in cold-blooded murders. The manner in which Amit...

The Supreme Court’s observations on the public distribution system (PDS) which call for exclusion of people living above poverty line (APL); fixing monthly ration on per head rather than per household basis; and using unique identification (UID) cards for targeting PDS supplies have implications that go beyond the PDS. The court has virtually set new parameters even for the proposed food security law since that is also likely to be...