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Learn from Israeli judiciary

In Israel, former President Moshe Katsav has been convicted of "rape, sexual harassment, committing an indecent act while using force, harassing a witness and obstruction of justice" by the Tel Aviv district court. The eighth president of the country, who served from 2000 to 2007, has been found guilty of raping an employee in 199

Dear Prime Minister, Sub: Reference to Dr. Binayak Sen

Dear Professor Manmohan Singh, I hope you don’t mind the temerity of this letter. It is written as one scholar to another, one citizen to another. I know you are a PM and people like me may not be influential. However some things must be said and said clearly. I was aghast to find that Doctor Binayak Sen has been given a life term for sedition. Let me put it simply. I thin

Lokayukta can check systematic corruption: Study

Independent bodies like the Lokayukta can check systematic corruption in the healthcare delivery systems under strong leadership, says a report released earlier this month on the role of the Karnataka Lokayukta (KLA) and the vigilance director. The study was conducted jointly by the University of Leeds, Karuna Trust and Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. An article published on

Reboot common service centres

The central government has scaled up its plan to open common service centres, from one lakh villages in its original vision for e-governance to a centre in every village across the country. These centres are meant to make government services available to the common man. So the decision to scale up seems a step in the right direction. But the fact remains tha

A judge`s liability

Justice is undone. Justice Gyan Sudha Mishra, to be precise. Not by a sentence, by a mere phrase - a loaded one which would make the country`s only woman judge in the supreme court seem somewhat medieval, and a great deal sexist. She listed the `marriages` of her two daughters as liabilities in a declaration of assets. Liabilities, wherever they may lie, are not the burden of one sex or the oth

Paid News: what to do about it?

The parliamentary standing committee on information technology, which also deals with the information and broadcasting ministry, has invited comments from stakeholders, professionals, experts, organisations, associations and public in general on various aspects relating to ‘Paid News’. Here is a comment Jagdeep Chhokar (Association for Democratic Reforms - ADR), Nikhil Dey and R

Parents` plight

“Don`t let schooling interfere with your education,” said Mark Twain. This surely does not apply to Indians. Looking at the nursery admissions scenario this year, it seems education has everything to do with schooling and schools – especially after the guidelines issued by the Directorate of Education (DoE) of Delhi which leave the process and criteria of admission to be decid

(Not so) Well begun, Competition Commission!

After being in business for around a year and a half, the competition commission of India (CCI) on December 2, passed its first final order where it held that the practice of imposing prepayment charges by banks and housing finance companies on the early repayment of home loans is not anti-competitive. The impression is CCI tottered its way to be able to come of age. This first ord

Inconvenience regretted

On Tuesday, for the fifth consectuive day, it took me more than 80 minutes to cover a distance usually covered in 55 minutes - Noida Sector 16 - Tilak Nagar on the metro. Last year when the metro entered Noida, it brought relief for many people working here. A relief from hours of waiting at the bus stops or fighting with the autowallahs, who did not have permit to enter Noida an

Drop in polio cases in India

Polio cases in India have drastically fallen as compared to last year, according to a recent report by Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), a wing of World Health Organisation (WHO). India’s 2010 record on polio shows only 41 new cases as against 672 in 2009. Out of the 41 cases from India, 19 are from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, two of the most affected states, compared to 60

10 reports that shamed India in 2010!

India in 2010 truly arrived on the international scene because of its sustained economic momentum which insulated it from the financial crisis that has engulfed the world since 2008. India is likely to register a growth of 8.75 percent during the quarter ending March 2011. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (WB) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) have projected India’s growth

A case for transparency in lawmaking

Last week, the department of personal and training (DoPT) found itself in a strange situation. It received more than 13,000 emails in response to the proposed RTI rules. The huge chunk of emails sent its server for a toss. The department was flooded with phone calls from all over the country with people telling the officials that the emails they had sent had bounced back. It had to rope in tech

Decongesting Delhi no joyride

While Delhi readies new deterrents to private motorised traffic on city roads, how much is it really geared to take on the demands on public transport that will arise as a result? How aptly will it address issues of technology and logistics? The city is planning to bring in congestion charges that will tax vehicles plying on roads during peak traffic hours of the day. It might prove eff

The tiger and the frog

Wildlife conservation in India has become synonymous with tiger conservation. The majestic animal, which is also India’s national animal and a magnet for tourists, hogs the limelight in the media and also catches the fancy of people at large. But there are many lesser-known birds and animals which have been identified as being ‘critically endangered’ in a list prepared by the

Inadequate sanitation costs India $54 billion: WB

Lack of adequate sanitation infrastructure cost India a whopping $54 billion in 2006 - close to 6.4 percent of the country`s gross domestic product (GDP) - according to a World bank study. “Inadequate sanitation causes India considerable economic losses at $53.8 billion (Rs.2.4 trillion),” the report Water and Sanitation Program (WSP), a global partnership administered by th

Decline and fall of Congress

At its plenary session in Burari, we are told, the Congress did not have time to ponder over its history. It should have, if for no other reason than the fact that 2010 is its 125th anniversary. Yes, there was a dramatised enactment of the first session of the Indian National Congress

India, China may face slow growth in 2011: UN

It is likely that India and China may not repeat, in 2011, the robust growth they have had this year, says a United Nations study. “The year 2010 has seen an impressive recovery of the region’s economies led by the large economies of China and India. But the region is faced with a weakening of growth in the developed economies that affect the pace of recovery,” says th

Masterji hasn’t given up on the Congress...

My barber, whom we call Masterji, is a psephologist caught in the wrong profession. Ever since I have known him, all his electoral predictions have turned out right. But as a voter, he has his own likes and dislikes. Being a Muslim living in Delhi for the past 43 years, he is not fond of the BJP – a feeling shared by his community in the walled city. I remember a visit to his salo

Visionary Talk: Amitabh Gupta, Pune Police Commissioner with Kailashnath Adhikari, MD, Governance Now


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