The past couple of months have seen a renewed attack on the National Advisory Council (NAC). The NAC has been decried as an unconstitutional, undemocratic, “super-cabinet” where unaccountable “jholawalas” hatch harebrained schemes guaranteed to run the government aground. Another line of criticism has focused on the process of the formation of the NAC, its space within the Indian Constitution, and its capacity to influence policy. The two criticisms merge with...

The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved verdict on petitions seeking uniformity in the criteria for OBC admissions to central universities, including the Delhi and Jawaharlal Nehru universities. Last week a Bench of Justices R.V. Raveendran and A.K. Patnaik had referred the matter to Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapadia for posting it before another Bench. However, the CJI asked the same Bench to continue with the hearing. The issue is whether students...

-The Times of India   Team Anna on Thursday began burning copies of the government's version of the Lokpal Bill that was tabled in Parliament today. Team Anna said the symbolic protest would continue till August 16 when Gandhian Anna Hazare will go on fast to protest the exclusion of several recommendations made by civil society members on the bill. The proposed legislation introduced in the Lok Sabha doesn't cover the Prime Minister...

-PTI   CBI has booked former Chief Medical Officer of Lucknow A K Shukla and former Deputy CMO Y S Sachan, who recently died inside Lucknow district prison under mysterious circumstances, in the multi-crore National Rural Health Mission scam. The agency has filed two cases in the scam as it found leads which indicate that huge financial bungling was allegedly committed by the UP Health Department officials in connivance with the contractors, CBI...

The implementation of the landmark legislation to provide free and compulsory education to children between six and 14 years of age this year onwards has become a tough task for the administration. The Right to Education (RTE) Act mandates private educational institutions to reserve 25 per cent seats for children from weaker sections of the society. But a state human resource development (HRD) department report has revealed that none of the...