What does it take to get the government to fight corruption? One answer could be: a medical facility with an air-conditioned Intensive Care Unit, a team of 60 doctors, a media centre, 1,300 toilets, seven large screens to pipe live action, television sets, and a storage facility of 100,000 litres of water. This is some of the infrastructure behind Baba Ramdev’s fast that starts on 4 June at New Delhi’s Ramlila grounds. Ramdev...

Every day, through scorching summers and chilly winters, Himmat pedals his bicycle rickshaw through New Delhi's crowded streets, earning barely enough to feed his family. But to India's government he is not poor – not even close. The 5,000 rupees ($110) he earns a month pays for a tiny room with a single light bulb and no running water for his family of four. After buying just enough food to keep...

Those responsible for the framing and implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) have once again protested the linking of Aadhaar number (Unique Identification UID) with the job guarantee scheme for the rural masses. In a letter sent to the Union rural development secretary, B K Sinha, they have expressed dissatisfaction over the decision to make UID compulsory for extending NREGA benefits in Mysore saying that the...

Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who heads the Lokpal Joint Drafting Committee, on Wednesday promised effective public consultations before finalising the draft Lokpal Bill. Responding to concerns raised by the National Campaign for Peoples' Right to Information (NCPRI), Mr. Mukherjee gave assurance that while deliberations of the meetings were not being made public on a routine basis, the basic principles and the draft Lokpal legislation, when ready, would be placed in...

Even as the government indicated after the last meeting of the Lokpal Bill joint drafting committee (JDC) that it would initiate drafting the Bill on agreed points, the National Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI) on Saturday raised several questions about the procedures being adopted by the panel, as well on the “official” public consultation that should take place. Discounting the lokpalbillconsultations.org website, launched by the panel's civil society members...