Hidden behind all the administrative scandals that rocked India in 2010, illegal mining is an unnoticed beast that has been eating into the country's soul.   While corruption in spectrum allocation and the conduct of the Commonwealth Games are primarily about monetary loot, illegal mining is about invaluable non-renewable natural resources.   In at least five major states, there were more than 20,000 complaints of illegal mining filed, but the perpetrators carried on with...

An RTI activist, Arun Mane was attacked in Talegaon area on Sunday morning. Arun Mane is reportedly close to murdered RTI activist Satish Shetty.   Mane had sought police protection as he had been receiving threats. Mane has survived the attack as of now.   Sandeep Shetty, RTI activist Satish Shetty's brother said, "Arun Mane was very close to my brother and helped him with the cases he was working on". Arun Mane was attacked...

The economy shows consistent signs of growth. The challenge in the new year is to make development more equitable and broad-based… 2010 was a year of relief that soon grew into despondency. We were relieved that India had pulled out of the deepest post-War recession relatively unscathed. The soundness of its cautious macro-economic management was underlined once again and the US economy is also looking like getting slowly back on...

After Congress chief Sonia Gandhi mooted a five-point plan at the recent AICC plenary session to put in place a system to confront corruption, the Centre is considering an ordinance to tighten the anti-corruption regime against politicians. The Congress core group on Friday discussed the possibility of the new law which would tighten the rules to punish corrupt politicians and counter the popular belief that the system was created to benefit...

In a gesture to the growing public disenchantment over Scams and corruption in public life, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's New Year resolutions for 2011 include “cleansing” the country's governing processes. Wishing all Indians a happy New Year, Dr. Singh said in a brief statement that it was time to take stock of the year gone by and make a new beginning. “Let us dispel the air of despondency and cynicism. We...