Opposing the current practice of appointing retired bureaucrats as information commissioners, RTI Activists on Thursday demanded that future appointments take place through open advertisement with applicants giving a detailed application form and a presentation to be screened by a high level committee. Advocating an open and transparent process for appointment of information commissioners, RTI Activists said persons of eminence in public life should be selected. MKSS leader and social Activist...

Bengal has the largest proportion of teenage mothers in the country, according to a data sheet prepared by the family planning division of the Union health ministry. The grim statistics emerged on a day the Lok Sabha discussed ways to control population and some MPs found merit in Sanjay Gandhi’s iron-fist policy. But Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad hastened to say “once bitten, twice shy” to make clear forcible measures...

The NAC's recommendations on food security measures take heed of the fact that PDS reform is dependent on the availability of enough foodgrains. Three major elements of the United Progressive Alliance government's commitment to provide food security to the people are reforming the public distribution system (PDS), raising foodgrain productivity and production, and creating a decentralised, modern warehousing system. Ideally, the reforms in the PDS should have come first for the availability...

While regretting the effectiveness of the regulatory system, Jairam Ramesh, Minister of State for Environment and Forests, told the Rajya Sabha on Monday that corporate majors Vedanta and Posco were being investigated for alleged violation of government guidelines. Replying to supplementaries during Question Hour, Mr. Ramesh said a four-member Expert Group, which is currently in Orissa, was looking into all cases of violations. “Once I get the report of this group, we...

The Centre has informed the Supreme Court that it is planning to set up a special authority to evaluate and regulate genetically modified crops (GM) and food. Solicitor-general Gopal Subramanium has informed a bench headed by Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia that the proposed authority will look into the grievances of the anti-GM crop Activists. “We are looking at setting up a special authority to resolve such issues.… It will also look into...