“The best way to solve the problem of surplus foodgrains is to roll out food security law” Opposing the Union Finance and Food & Civil Supply Ministries' proposal for providing foodgrains as part payment of wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh holds that the best way to solve the problem of surplus foodgrains is to roll out the food security law...

BHOPAL: The state government move to appoint chief information commissioner (CIC) by the end of April may hit a roadblock with the Supreme Court stating Friday that it would lay down guidelines to ensure that posts of information commissioners at the centre and state commissions do not become "property of a political set-up". The post of state's CIC is lying vacant following the retirement of P P Tiwari on March 26...

MUMBAI: At a time when there is intense debate on changes introduced by the state governmentto the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the state information commission has recommended curbs on the number of appeals a person can file.  Arguing that multiple appeals and applications filed by the same individuals were hampering disposal of the RTI appeals and delaying discharge of information, acting state information commissioner Bhaskar Patil has asked the government...

Overlooked and ignored, the problem of untouchability continues to be practised and perpetrated in the country. It is a lifetime of misery and humiliation, unimaginable for the relatively privileged but a daily reality for over one-fifth of the country’s 120 crore-plus population, as revealed succinctly in 22 short and easy to view videos under the Article 17 Campaign launched on April 14, 2012 by India Unheard, which claims to be...

-The Economist West Bengal’s populist chief minister is doing badly. Yet she typifies shifts in power in India BUYER’S remorse is common enough in the dusty markets of Kolkata, a delightful if crumbling great city, once known as Calcutta and still capital of the state of West Bengal. Those who buy cheap plastic goods or plaster-of-Paris busts of Rabindranath Tagore, Bengal’s cultural hero, may come to regret their haste. Likewise, many who...