-The Times of India   The Anna Hazare-led civil society movement cannot be faulted for having come up with its version of the Lokpal Bill, because otherwise it would have been accused of campaigning for something essentially negative - the withdrawal of the flawed government version without putting forward an alternative. Frustration with everyday corruption - as well as the spectacular kind that explodes in the public sphere ever so often (...

'We want to pressure the government and assert our rights as citizens.' Arvind Kejriwal received the Magsaysay award in the Emergent leadership category in 2006. A mere five years later, he has far surpassed that milestone, winning acclaim and notice for the way he conceived and crafted Anna Hazare's anti-corruption movement. He talks to Vidya Subrahmaniam about the Jan Lokpal campaign, what it accomplished and why it often became controversial. The scale...

From 50 in 2005, the number of applications is expected to touch 15,000 this year The Karnataka Information Commission has received, in recent weeks, a flood of applications for information under the Right to Information Act at public information offices (PIOs) across the State. Factors It would appear that the heightening of the anti-corruption mood in the country following the Anna Hazare movement, the report of the State Lokayukta against Illegal Mining that...

India Inc too wants an honest day’s work On August 22, a public holiday across north India, Sunil Sirohi, a middle-aged IT executive, joined Ramlila Maidan’s anti-corruption agitators with wife Jyoti and a pre-teen son. “It’s the first such movement we’ve been part of,” he says. One of the attractions was bringing young Siddhartha up-to-date on Anna Hazare, the self-styled Gandhian from Maharashtra who has become the public face of...

The Supreme Court's environment panel, Central Empowered Committee (CEC), on Friday concurred with the Karnataka Lokayukta to report rampant illegal iron ore mining in Chitradurga and Tumkur districts and recommended a complete ban on private mining. Submitting the CEC's report to a bench of Chief Justice S H Kapadia and Justices Aftab Alam and Swatanter Kumar, amicus curiae A D N Rao said the adverse impact on environment in these two...