-The Hindu   As auditor to a nation whose institutions of oversight are weak and underdeveloped, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India is more than just the keeper of our national accounts. It is, in many ways, a conscience-keeper and a watchdog, which may not bite but can bark and warn ordinary citizens that something is amiss in the wider affairs of state. Like the Election Commission and the Supreme...

Even as the number on attacks RTI activists in the state have become frighteningly routine, political leaders who have come under the scanner, mostly from the ruling BJP, are still untouched. In the latest incident in which Porbandar-based advocate and social worker Bhagu Devani was stabbed on last Friday, police have arrested Laku Odedara, brother of former Porbandar Nagarpalika president Vikram Odedara, along with three others but former irrigation minister Babu...

TODAY, India is considered around the world as a rapidly developing country posting economic growth rates of around 8-9 percent consistently over the last several years. Along with China, which is much further ahead, India is seen as a powerhouse of the global economy in the decades to come and already it is home to a very large number of dollar billionaires, perhaps the largest such number in Asia. In...

-The Times of India   Do not drink your bottle gourd ('lauki' in Hindi, and 'sorakaya' in Telugu) juice if it tastes bitter, it could kill you. This recommendation comes after some investigation by an experts' committee. The death of 59-year-old scientist, Sushil Kumar Saxena, a deputy secretary in the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in New Delhi in June 2010, spurred an investigation into the effects of the consumption of...

-PTI   The West Bengal government today submitted before the Calcutta high court that it was not against the Tatas but in favour of farmers and employment generation. Contesting the Tata Motors Ltd prayer that the Singur Rehabilitation and Development Act 2011 be declared unconstitutional, senior counsel for the government Saktinath Mukherjee submitted before Justice Saumitra Pal that the government was answerable to the people as 1000 acres of fertile land was...