Conceding a major Team Anna demand, the parliamentary committee examining the Lokpal Bill has decided to recommend that 57 lakh "Group C" central government employees - or the entire lower bureaucracy - be placed within the ambit of the anti-corruption ombudsman.  In a controversial decision, the panel also decided to exclude the prime minister from the Lokpal's jurisdiction as long as he holds office. This was at its final meeting to...

-The Times of India   If the proposed Lokpal will cure administration, RTI will help it. Hence both were complimentary to each other, said Satyanand Mishra, chief information commissioner (CIC), government of India.  The government wants that the corporate houses should also abide by the Right to Information (RTI) Act, falling on then lines of the government offices.  Mishra said that India Inc will also have to accept transparency and for this they can...

-The Economic Times   What should be the agenda for national renewal? Should we discuss what should be done in individual sectors like agriculture, infrastructure, energy, etc., and plead before the rulers of modern democracy to accept some of our suggestions or should we focus on the decision-making processes itself, which exist in governance today? Who takes decisions in our 'democracy'? Who influences these decisions? Are these processes really democratic? Is lack of...

-The Telegraph   Law minister Salman Khurshid today unveiled a slew of bills to be taken up in Parliament’s winter session to demonstrate the government’s commitment to fighting graft, other than the Lokpal Bill that he said would address the “concerns of the common man”. The whistle-blowers’ bill, sports bill and the judicial accountability bills are among those on the agenda, the minister told a news conference in the run-up to the session...

In this Idea Exchange moderated by Senior Editor Archna Shukla, I&B minister Ambika Soni speaks about self-regulation by the media, empowering the Press Council of India and the Congress party’s stand on corruption Archna Shukla: There is a growing perception that the government is unhappy with media criticism. The editor of a leading English daily publicly claimed that government advertisements have been stopped to his publication. Is the government being vindictive? I have...