One more biodiversity project at Sindhudurg in Malvan, Maharastra The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has sanctioned a community-based natural resource management and mangrove conservation project in Godavari estuary, Andhra Pradesh, similar to the Gulf of Mannar Marine Conservation Project in Tamil Nadu. Speaking to The Hindu, Doley Tshering, Regional Technical Specialist, Ecosystems and Natural Resources, Regional Centre in Bangkok for Asia and the Pacific countries, who visited here recently, said...

Soon, RTI won’t get info out of the CBI Mirror Turns Opaque     * CBI proposes an exemption from giving information under RTI     * Law ministry gives it green signal based on Gopal Subramanium’s opinion     * All it requires is a department of personnel and training (DoPT) notification to get an exemption     * Activists fear agencies will use this to deny citizens information *** Will the CBI be allowed not to divulge details...

Even as the CBI managed to get the case closed against Italian businessman OTTavio Quattrocchi in Bofors payoff scam stating that the agency spent over Rs 250 crore in its efforts to get him extradited, a reply to an RTI application gives a different picture altogether. In a startling revelation, the RTI application reveals that CBI spent a total of Rs 4,77,29,210 on investigation in the Bofors case. The figure includes...

Technically, we know how to check the black economy but the problem is political. More studies or committees and treaties with foreign governments are only to stall action. Another Joint Parliamentary Committee has been announced. The government has been trying to create an impression of being proactive with regard to tackling the black economy. The President's address and the speech by Sonia Gandhi in January mentioned the need to curb it....

Notwithstanding the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal's order that stated Rs.41.2 crore was paid as kickbacks to the late Win Chadha and Italian businessman OTTavio Quattrocchi in the Bofors gun deal, the CBI on Tuesday reiterated its stand to close the case in the “public interest.” Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vinod Yadav had scheduled the case for pronouncement of judgment on the CBI's closure report but deferred it when advocate Ajay Agarwal urged...