-The Hindustan Times   Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit on Wednesday evaded questions on the Comptroller and Auditor General reportedly rapping her government for irregularities in Commonwealth Games projects, saying she will comment only after the report is tabled in Parliament. "I will not comment on CAG. Let it be tabled in Parliament. Then only I will say anything," Dikshit said. She was asked to comment on reported observations by CAG about irregularities in...

The Orissa government has failed to keep its commitment for renewal of the revised MoU with Posco-India Ltd for setting up 12-million ton steel plant near Paradip by July end as the South Korean company has not agreed to CERTain conditions in the revised MoU. Even as the tenure of the previous MoU expired on June 21, 2010, the state government had gone on acquiring land for the proposed steel...

-The Times of India   Taking note of frequent threats posed by CERTain government officials and those in power to RTI activists in Manipur, a group of the rights defenders has formed an ad hoc committee - Transparency Initiatives Manipur (TIR) - with the primary objective to fight the menace. TIR convener and prominent RTI activist Wahengbam Joykumar said the forum was formed recently after a meeting of RTI activists and other individuals,...

-AFP   Asia could be as wealthy as Europe by mid-century, but only if it tackles key challenges from inequality and corruption to climate change, an Asian Development Bank study said Tuesday. On current trends, Asia will make up half the world's economic output by 2050, and another three billion people will have joined the ranks of the affluent, their incomes matching those of Europe today, said the report. But the ADB study...

It’s been raining “rights” in Indian policy for the last few years — education, work, food, service, healthcare, and much else. This “Diet Coke” approach to poverty reduction — the sweetness without the calories — was always dangerous because of unknown side effects. Commenting in 1790 on the consequences of the French Revolution, Edmund Burke said: “They have found their punishment in their success. Laws overturned, tribunals subverted, industry without...