-The Hindu Political parties have acted as judge, jury, supplicant and advocate in their move to amend the RTI Act and exempt themselves from its purview. Their rhetoric on transparency is more hollow than ever A friend called the other day, and said: "I want to congratulate all of you in the RTI community, because you have managed to do what no one, and nothing else has managed to for a long...

-The Hindu Political parties have acted as judge, jury, supplicant and advocate in their move to amend the RTI Act and remove themselves from its purview. Their rhetoric on transparency sounds more hollow now than ever. The RTI Act provides a regime of consummate transparency of "public authorities". Instead of specifying information to be disclosed, the Act mandates 100 per cent transparency subject only to a tightly defined list of exclusions under...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The government is tightening the rules to stop any incidence of "paid news" in the election season. Media organizations found guilty of publishing "news'' for a consideration will risk losing their registration according to amendments to the Press and Registration of Books (PRB) act proposed by the information and broadcasting (I&B) ministry. Similar provisions are also likely to be brought in for electronic media. With assembly...

-The Hindu blog The state that pioneered the successful noon-meal scheme may just have cooked up the next big idea. In his latest book, 'An Uncertain Glory - India and its contradictions', economist-philosopher and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has devoted almost ten pages to sing Tamil Nadu's praise for its efficient delivery of public services. "Tamil Nadu's capacity for innovation and creative thinking in matters of public administration is an important example for...

-Outlook New Delhi: With political parties agitated over plans to bring them under the ambit of RTI Act and the recent Supreme Court judgement on disqualification of lawmakers, government has called an all-party meeting tomorrow to firm up a view on the contentious issues. The meeting convened by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath is also to facilitate early passage of the Food Security Bill. The Bill is currently under consideration of the Lok...