A state data centre meant to be the backbone of launching much-needed e-governance initiatives has been hanging fire for the last two years and now looks like stuck for another six months at least for want of a building. An agreement to set up the centre, to come up under the aegis of National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), was signed with Sify Technologies in February, more than one and a half years...

The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) to come up with a detailed plan of action regarding the development of education system and implementation of Right to Education in the north-eastern states of the country. A bench of Justice Altamas Kabir, Justice Cyriac Joseph, and Justice Surinder Singh Nijjar gave the direction after the court in 2007 took suo motu cognisance of a...

-The Business Standard   The controversy surrounding the arrest of Anna Hazare and his team has generated more heat than light about the issues at stake. Mr Hazare and his supporters not only insisted that their views be taken on board in drafting a Lok Pal Bill, but also demanded that only their version of the Bill be accepted and, in fact, placed in Parliament by the government. No government can accept such...

Even as the area around Parliament was swamped by crowds of Anna Hazare's supporters, demanding a stronger Lokpal Bill on Wednesday, a small group of environmental activists staged their own demonstration against a different bill, the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) Bill, 2011. Science and Technology Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh was scheduled to introduce the controversial BRAI Bill in the Lok Sabha, but the House did not conduct regular business due...

A set of well-thumbed photographs are being passed around by protestors gathered outside the Sukma post office in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district. The first is passport-sized, of a well-built, thirty year old man called Madkami Massa in a pale blue shirt smiling into the camera, the other grainier image shows Mr. Massa's contorted corpse on a white slab – his right arm severed at the elbow, his chest pierced by a...