Binayak Sen walked out of prison this evening to warm hugs from his mother, wife, daughters and friends but not before technical problems relating to his bail threatened to stall his release today. Eventually, the frail 61-year-old in kurta-pyjamas emerged from Raipur Central Jail a couple of hours later than expected, ending his four-month stay behind bars under a bail condition that requires him to surrender his passport. The rights Activist, granted...

Given the scale of corruption in India, the constitution of a Jan Lokpal will be a welcome initiative. But the proposed Lokpal has the makings of a super-monster. After 42 years of hesitation and uncertainty, an institutional mechanism to deal with the all-pervasive incidence of corruption in India is in sight. What apparently moved the state machinery was the agitation spearheaded by Anna Hazare, which drew spontaneous support primarily in the...

Medicine heals, but this fact doesn`t hold true for every 300th patient admitted to hospital. Call it the law of averages or blame human error for it, but the World Health Organization believes that one in 10 hospital admissions leads to an adverse event and one in 300 admissions in death. An adverse event could range from the patient having to spend an extra day in hospital or missing a dose...

Setting aside their differences with the Anna Hazare team over the Lokpal Bill, civil society representatives on the Sonia Gandhi led-National Advisory Council (NAC) have come out strongly to oppose they called a systematic attempt to slander the reputation of Shanti and Prashant Bhushan. NAC members and their comrades banded under the National Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI) with Aruna Roy, Harsh Mander and others endorsing the viewpoint of...

An Activist promoting the Right to Information Act in Maharashtra has been attacked with a sword. He is in hospital. Popat Barge was attacked in the Satara district on Sunday night, possibly in retaliation for his attempts to use the RTI to check on illegal construction. Mr Barge is a member of Anna Hazare's organization against corruption - Bhrastachar Virodhi Jan Andolan (The People's Movement Against Corruption). ...