Prosecutors have begun questioning the controversial chief minister of India's Tamil Nadu state, Jayaram Jayalalitha, in a corruption case against her. She is accused of amassing huge amounts of wealth during a previous term as chief minister between 1991 and 1996. She denies the allegation. The case was transferred from Madras (Chennai) in Tamil Nadu to Bangalore, capital of neighbouring Karnataka state, to ensure a fair trial. Security was tight for her appearance. Known...
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Women in India: Bringing in the Other Half by Sruthi Gottipatti and Nikhila Gill
When put in charge, women in India are better than men at providing clean water and adequate sanitation for their communities. And despite the gains women have made in the developed world, they’re still doing about as much of the housework and childcare as women in India. The World Bank’s recently released 2012 World Development Report on gender equality and development shows progress in some areas, while in others gaps in...
More »Foreign diplomats get lesson on unique identification drive
-IANS India's mammoth exercise to issue a unique identification (UID) number to each of its 1.2 billion population has attracted the attention of many nations, and diplomats got a glimpse of what changes in governance could be brought about from the project's pioneer Nandan Nilekani himself. Nilekani told the 100 odd diplomats from several embassies based in the capital Wednesday that the UID Authority of India's effort was to provide an instrument...
More »No displacement, resettle slum dwellers where they live: NAC by Smita Gupta
At a time that land in urban centres, especially in the big metropolitan cities, is at a premium, a Working Group of the Sonia Gandhi-LED National Advisory Council (NAC) has suggested that, as far as possible, slum dwellers should be resettLED at the spot where they are currently living, rather than displacing them, so that they continue to remain close to their places of work. NAC sources said the Working...
More »PM calls for changes in laws to criminalize private sector bribery by Liz Mathew & Sahil Makkar
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that the government plans to strengthen anti-graft laws in India by making bribery in the private sector a criminal offence. “We are considering changes in our laws to criminalize private sector bribery,” Singh said, while speaking at the Biennial Conference of CBI and state anti-corruption bureaux on Friday. Singh also indicated that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will continue as the premier investigative agency even after...
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