This is the season to count blessings. India's greatest blessings are its adherence to the democratic system of governance, an independent judiciary, a free and fearless media, and an Election Commission that inspires confidence. I hope that soon India will have an independent and effective Lokpal, which will pave the way for a corruption-free India, a pre-requisite for a hunger-free India. The other major paradigm shift observed in recent years is...

-PTI Ruling out any outside regulation of the media, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday said the media in the country can itself take care of the 'ills' like paid news and urged it to reduce sensationalism in coverage. "I am very happy that the media of our country is by and large independent and alive... Ever since we have got independence, discussions have been going on in the country about the role...

Though Anna Hazare gets much of the credit for focusing the national spotlight on corruption, India was only too aware of the problem even before his agitation. According to a Pew Research poll in October 2010 (six months before Hazare emerged on the national scene), 98 per cent of Indians indicate corrupt political leaders as a “very big” or a “moderately big” problem. Hazare’s campaign did not attune Indians to...

Supporters who hit the streets are from all walks of life The response to Team Anna's protest in Mumbai was lukewarm on Tuesday, compared to the popular support it received in New Delhi earlier. Though members of India Against Corruption claimed that 30,000 people visited the MMRDA (Mumbai Metropolitan Region Authority) ground in the Bandra-Kurla Complex here, it did not look more than 3,000. There was a spurt in the number of...

-The Hindu   Rajya Sabha MP and Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi chaired the 30-member parliamentary panel that presented its voluminous report earlier this month on the Lokpal Bill 2011. The report has points of divergence with both the official Lokpal Bill draft and the Team Anna version. (The Union Cabinet on Tuesday night approved a Bill for the creation of the Lokpal with constitutional status that will have no control over the...