Despite some movement in primary education, assured rural employment and access to potable water, India continues to lag behind in realising the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set for 2015 by the United Nations, a new report says. Persistent inequalities, ineffective delivery of public services, weak accountability systems and gaps in implementing pro-poor policies are major bottlenecks to progress, said the country report on India pertaining to the Millennium Development Goals. It...

A logo for the Right to Information (RTI) Act, designed by a faculty of the National Institute of Design (NID), created quite a buzz in Ahmedabad on Wednesday. But the revelation, it seems, has not gone down too well with RTI activists in the city. They have not only expressed their displeasure by saying the process lacks ‘transparency’, but also filed an RTI seeking details pertaining to the entire process. The...

The steering group of the Right to Food Campaign on Wednesday expressed its “shock” at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statement asking the Supreme Court not to interfere with policy and said it showed how “completely anti-poor” the government was. In a press release here, the Campaign — a conglomeration of rights and civil society groups — said that when, under the Constitution, people had the Right to Life as well as...

Pratyush Sinha retired as India’s central vigilance commissioner on Monday. During his tenure Sinha, a 1969 Bihar cadre IAS officer, conducted several high-profile investigations such as the ones into the allocation of 2G mobile phone spectrum and preparations for the Commonwealth Games (CWG), among others. In an interview conducted in mid-August, Sinha spoke about issues ranging from the whistle-blower’s Act to the collapse of governance. Edited excerpts: What are the...

We need to make sure nutrition is not easily neglected. And that means putting pressure on leaders throughout society to focus on nutrition. I have just finished a trip to India to help contribute to the efforts on ending malnutrition. The politicians and media were talking about the sparkling new economic growth and development figures. There was no such attention given to the “other” growth and development figures — those related...