-The Hindustan Times   New Delhi: As over 1.30 lakh people die in road traffic accidents every year in India, the Supreme Court on Tuesday set up a three-member panel to monitor implementation of road safety measures, including emergency medical help to accident victims. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India P Sathasivam asked the government to extend better medical facilities made available on an experimental basis on national highways to...

-Live Mint     As a democracy matures, citizens become more willing to trust elected representatives to plan and take steps for the long-term growth and development One common complaint during this election has been that the election commission (EC) has to be consulted before the government and its regulatory agencies take any routine decision. Decisions relating to gas price hikes and bank LICences all had to be cleared by the EC, whose over...

-The Hindu   Ideological labels are likely to mislead by channelling the debate into issues of capitalism and socialism and detract from the real problem George Santayana said: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Having forgotten the LICense-permit-quota-raj that enveloped us from 1950 to 1980 and its ‘crony socialism,' many intellectuals, mediapersons and politicians have now discovered ‘crony capitalism.' The LICense raj consisted of stifling controls imposed on...

-The New Indian Express     Bangalore: As the battle for the Lok Sabha elections intensifies, the fight against the UPA government's pet Aadhaar project found support on Sunday as a group of academicians and technocrats spoke against the unique identification project in the city. The head of the project - Nandan Nilekani - is a technocrat himself and also the Congress candidate from Bangalore South constituency. In a discussion on the project, organised...

-Down to Earth Kerala launches an on-line campaign on dalit and adivasi concerns On December 2, 2012, when Andhra Pradesh Assembly passed a legislation to give legal protection to the special funds meant for the welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) communities, it was described as historic. The Andhra Pradesh Scheduled Castes Sub-Plan and Tribal Sub-Plan (Planning, Allocation and Utilisation of Financial Resources) Act of 2012, first of its kind...