The Centre plans to manacle the RTI Act When the UPA passed the landmark Right to Information Act in 2005, it was meant to empower citizens. The law promised transparency, accountability, and the end of corruption in governance. But in under five years, the government is planning to push through amendments that will dilute the law. Ironically, the amendments are being pushed through in a totally opaque manner. There has been...
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Teenager beats odds to run free school for poor village students by Aveek Datta
For more than seven years, Babar Ali, 17, has been teaching children from poor families for free at a school he founded in a west bengal village, while studying at another school. Ali opened the Ananda Shiksha Niketan at Gangapur village in Murshidabad district in 2002, when he was just nine. Today, the school has more than 800 students. Another 200 have applied to join in the next session—making it larger...
More »We need to build our food security: MS Swaminathan
If we can have a nuclear submarine programme, a space missile programme, cricket sponsorship programme by individuals like Sharukh Khan, why can’t we have a programme to save rotting paddy lying across the country,” says Dr MS Swaminathan highlighting the parody that India’s is currently facing. In Ludhiana to address the convocation of Punjab Agriculture University the scientist and Member of Parliament speaks to ET highlighting that the future belongs...
More »When women become 'witches' by Saira Kurup
On January 2, 2010, three masked men barged into Pinki’s home in Tapodana village, Ranchi district and killed her parents on the charges of practicing witchcraft. Pinki, 14, and her younger brother are now in hiding because she too has been named as a dayan or witch. Sushila Devi, 45, tries to hide the injury on her head with her sari pallu as she describes how she and four other...
More »The blame game around food prices by CP Chandrasekhar
The special meeting of Chief Ministers convened by the Centre indicates that food price inflation remains worrisome. But at the meet the problem was underplayed and little of substance emerged. With food price inflation still running at close to 18 per cent, the UPA government at the Centre has been forced to recognise that it constitutes a problem that deserves as much or more attention than the objective of achieving...
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