-Live Mint To maintain his constant stream of RTI petitions, Agrawal says he gets ideas from day-to-day observations, news reports, government insiders, whistle-blowers and journalists. In the summer of 1985, a cloth merchant in Chandni Chowk, the crowded market in the old quarters of Delhi, received a call in response to a letter he had written to the papers asking why his favourite weekly television serial, Rajani, could not be aired daily...

Sitamarhi, June 16: The Union rural development ministry has approved construction of 6,000km road in Bihar under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) during the current financial year at a cost of Rs 3,200 crore. Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh made this announcement after a review meeting with officers at Sitamarhi circuit house today. The minister, who is on a two-day visit to the state, told reporters that the ministry...

-The Telegraph Surtama, a 37-year-old woman from the mountains of Uttarkashi, was in the capital yesterday to express anger at having to live with no electricity and demand a revival of stalled hydroelectric projects in her state. “We walk more than 2km to a village in Himachal Pradesh to charge the mobile phone battery,” said Surtama from Pujeli, a village of about 80 households some of which have acquired mobile phones to...

-The Times of India   The new occupant of Rashtrapati Bhavan will have to be more transparent in making donations.  For, the Delhi high court on Thursday, in a significant ruling, held that under the Right to Information Act, every citizen is entitled to know the donations given by the President of India, as these are made out of public funds.  "Every citizen is entitled to know as to how the Money, which is...

Autistic people stand to benefit in terms of schooling, jobs and welfare projects if a new disability act that is being drafted is enacted into law. The Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995, does not include autism but the government plans to cover the condition in the revised act, accepting a longstanding demand from social activists. Autism is now covered under the National Trust for the Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy,...