Several upper-caste children have allegedly refused midday meals prepared by Dalit cooks in an Andhra school, sparking fears that one of UPA’s key welfare schemes could be turning into a platform to perpetuate caste prejudices. The authorities of the Zilla Parishad School at Sundaragiri in Karimnagar — slain Maoist leader Kishan’s home district — have alleged that the children turning down the food are being goaded by their elders, including some...

The central government claims that allowing foreign direct investment into India’s retail sector will benefit small farmers, expand employment and lower food inflation. What has been the experience in India with organised retail so far and what has been the global experience with FDI? Sukhpal Singh (sukhpal@iegindia.org) is currently at the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi. After being under relentless attack for a week, the United Progressiv Alliance government was forced to...

An inconvenient truth? Or yet another case of shoddy data collection by state agencies? The government is scrambling to prove that it is the latter, after data on the UPA's flagship poverty alleviation programme shows that it may not be reaching its intended beneficiaries, those classified in official-speak as below the poverty line (BPL). A recent note circulated to all state departments by the rural development ministry revealed that only...

The new year is off to a bad start for the state as far as the Right To Information (RTI) Act is concerned. The pendency of appeals under the landmark Act will cross the 20,000 mark on January 1, 2012, thanks to the failure of the Congress-NCP government to appoint the chief information commissioner as well as commissioners for Mumbai and Konkan region. This will be the highest pendency of appeals in...

Chances of a single answer to two opposing questions on the RTI Act means there is something to it which the rule-books don’t tell you about—but you can bowl googlies to them, too, when the system expects you to hold a straight bat to their bouncers Here is a single answer to two diametrically opposite questions—“Yes, you can file an application under the Right to Information Act of India 2005 (RTI...