-The Hoot   Scores of journalists and non-journalists, governed by the respective statutory Wage Boards, are up in arms against the alleged ‘malicious campaign’ unleashed through the Indian Newspapers Society (INS) by a few Media Houses opposing the recommendations of the latest Justice G.R.Majithia Wage Board constituted by the Centre.   They are awaiting with bated breath the verdict of the Supreme Court bench that had, on July 18, 2011, informally directed the...

Nandkumar Naitam is relieved after a month of “torturous” anxiety. “I thought it over again and again,” the 20-year-old tribal youth says. “I thought that if I couldn’t get a rifle, I’d pick up my traditional weapon, the bow-and-arrow.” It was a desperation that Nandu, as he is fondly called, shared with his 5,000-odd fellow special police officers (SPOs), who till a month ago formed the Chhattisgarh government’s frontline against the Maoists...

RV Gumaste, a member of Kirloskar’s project team that set up Bellary’s first iron-making unit in 1994, has never seen such times since he first moved base from Pune 17 years ago. “We will take the burden for our regular employees for some time. But how long?” says the industry veteran, who was appointed Managing Director of Kirloskar Ferrous Industries Ltd in July 2003. The Rs 1,100-crore company has 800...

In a season when every self-styled warrior against corruption is trying to look for a new weapon to fight it, my guest today is Satyananda Mishra, Chief Information Commissioner—someone who has in his control the strongest of those weapons, the RTI. Actually when it all began, nobody thought it would be so effective. In a period of five-and-a-half years, it has touched the hearts and minds of people. The number of...

Lucknow, New Delhi : In April this year, Babu Singh Kushwaha resigned as Uttar Pradesh’s family welfare minister, taking moral responsibility for the scam involving misappropriation of National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) funds in the office of Lucknow’s Chief Medical Officer (CMO) — a racket that was exposed after the murder of incumbent B P Singh. The money involved was a few crores and the men arrested were a former CMO,...