Gautam Budha Nagar (Noida) district magistrate Ravikant Singh, who had given clean chit to suspended IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal, has been transferred. Hiralal Gupta will replace Singh as Noida`s new DM. Ravikant singh, much to
The approximately 1 lakh rural internet kiosks set up by the government are soon going to be one-stop shops for government-related services. Be it opening a bank account, applying for voter ID card, updating Aadhaar database or applying for a skil
For years, l have been writing orders and judgments. In the last few years, I have been writing reports of Lokayukta. Today, l wish to narrate a story with a caption ‘Birth and Burial of a Pension Reform’. It is symbolic of the f
The Delhi lokayukta, Justice Manmohan Sarin, has pulled up the South Delhi municipal corporation (SDMC) for violating several norms in the issuance of social welfare pension. In an inquiry the lokayukta found that a municipal councilor cheated the
Okay, you are smarter than I am so you tell me. Why do the Indian police always hold hands with the suspects after arresting them? You often get this picture of five cops holding a palm and a shoulder or an arm and an elbow and then
With the rupee on a freefall against the dollar, making life difficult for people in the newsroom to come up with new version of the same headline (rupee hits a fresh-from-the-oven ‘record low’) every day, Ron Somers, president of the
After month-long peaceful protests, full-scale violence is beginning to rear its ugly head in the ongoing Seemandhra agitation. Unidentified men set fire to a Tehsildar office in Ananthapur district even as Samaikhyandhra crusaders went on a rampa
My father was a victim of Partition and we were in some way fairly closely connected [to the freedom movement], hearing firsthand stories of the struggle. My generation of politicians is impacted much harder by 1947 than the generation after us
Taking a stand at variance with the government, the CBI on Tuesday informed the supreme court that the agency should not be asked to approach the government for permission to interrogate or investigate top officers in a court monitored case.
A cabinet minister recently confessed privately that he was told by his European currency trader friend that the rupee might touch 99 to a dollar by the end of the year. This may be sheer exaggeration on the minister’s part, but it showed th
Just as the rupee and the stock markets were being hammered on Tuesday, finance minister P Chidambaram, stoic, cool, stately and always ready with a plan, doled out a 10-pointer to get India`s economy going again. Here`s his 10-point plan:
Responding to a warning issued by the intelligence bureau (IB), security has been beefed up in and around the Indian space research organisation’s (ISRO) space launch facility in Sriharikota on Tuesday. Based on inputs from IB warnin
The YSR Congress Party is pushing ahead with a two-pronged strategy to keep itself in the news in the wake of the ongoing Seemandhra stir. While its president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy is on an indefinite fast inside the Chanchalguda Central Jail, his
All of us have a Right to Livelihood. Millions of us are without one. We have a Right to Education. About half the country is illiterate. Tribals have a Right to Forest Land. Acres of forests are disappearing. We really don’t know the right
On August 22, a young photojournalist out on an assignment at an abandoned textile mill in central Mumbai was raped by five persons, including two whose families claim they are minors. The accused roughed up the woman’s accompanying colleagu
The government`s flagship National Food Security Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha after a nine-hour debate late on Monday. The scheme, which will cover 67 percent of the population of the country, will be the world`s biggest programme to f
Making a strong pitch for smooth passage of the food security bill, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Monday told parliament that the bill is a historic opportunity to provide food security to millions of people in the country and would forever end
If I were a man, I might even prefer Delhi to Mumbai. I’m serious – in this city, I miss Delhi’s roads, space, parks, infrastructure, cleanliness… the works. But Delhi is a gendered experience, and, as a free-spirited woma
While unending protests are rocking the Seemandhra regions, state capital Hyderabad appears to be sitting on a potentially-dangerous bifurcation powder keg. The historical city resembles a battlefield, thanks to a spate of stand-offs between Telan
The Samaikhyandhra movement espousing a unified state cause received a double whammy from the judiciary on Monday as the supreme court struck down a petition seeking a stay on the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. The apex court gave its ruli
