The Planning Commission has approved the annual plan of Rs 42000 crore for the Uttar Pradesh for the year 2010-11. However this could not satisfy the state government as it has alleged that in comparison with the other states the Central Government was not providing expected share to Uttar Pradesh in centrally aided schemes and projects. A high level delegation headed by the Chief Secretary Atul Kumar Gupta held Deliberations...

In a letter to an RTI activist, the Department of Personnel and Training (Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions) has admitted to considering about a dozen amendments to the Right to Information Act, with the assurance that any amendment “will be made only after consultation with the stakeholders.” The letter to Subhash Chandra Agrawal is upfront about at least two of the amendments: exempting the office of the Chief Justice...

The Centre has so far not addressed the problem of climate change impact on agriculture and food sector, a panel of experts participating in a national conference on ‘Ensuring Food Security in a Changing Climate' observed here on Saturday. While it is estimated that agriculture in the productive areas of South Asia will be amongst the worst affected, with predictions that almost 40 per cent of the production potential could be...

Beginning 1 July, details of projects, minutes of board meetings and a whole lot else will be made public under a disclosure policy. “India’s right to information law is an inspiration for us,” says Isabel Guerrero, the Bank’s Vice-President for South Asia and one of the architects of the disclosure policy. The policy itself is new, but the process has been on, with voices like Guerrero’s within the Bank pressing...

The Cabinet on Thursday cleared the long-pending Prevention of Torture Bill for introduction in Parliament with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh strongly backing the proposed law despite some misgivings that such a law could demoralize security forces after the Dantewada killings. Though enacting the law is a step towards ratification of the UN convention against other cruel, inhuman punishment and degrading treatment, and has been pending for some time now, the...