June 3, 2013 turned out to be very similar to July 8, 2002. How and why? On June 3, 2013, the central information commission (CIC) announced a decision that “held that AICC/INC, BJP, CPI(M), CPI, NCP and BSP are public authorities un
The Coal secretary from 2006 to 2009, HC Gupta, begins his deposition before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday. TKA Nair, the prime minster’s erstwhile principal secretary and now his advisor, is expected to be probed
“I have never made a fetish of consistency. I am a votary of Truth and I must say what I feel and think at a given moment on the question, without regard to what I may have said before on it.… As my vision gets clearer, my views m
On Monday, June 17, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee finally decided to visit the house of a Barasat college student who was raped and murdered on June 6. From all accounts, the reason behind that visit to Kamduni village in Barasat, som
This is exactly what the Congress, the oldest political party in India, doesn’t need, yet can’t let go of — servile sycophancy. Union minister of state for agriculture and food processing Dr Charandas Mahant was at
Who says bouncers are only stationed at the gates of pubs and discos? The Hyderabad water board has now hired these ‘tough guys’ to keep protestors off its premises. The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board ha
One of the first things Rahul Gandhi did after assuming charge as the Congress vice-president in January this year, we were told, was to put a bar on sycophancy. The Gandhi scion, we were told, had ticked off several senior party leaders for their
The Andhra Pradesh Police, probing the sensational special darshan ticket scam, have pinned the fraud at Rs 34.78 lakhs. After prolonged interrogation, the cops formally arrested three detained in this connection recently and produced them in a co
With the rupee languishing, investments taking a backseat and deficit levels refusing to come down significantly, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday decided to keep the interest rates unchanged. The move, the apex bank hopes, will help brin
Like many newspapers headlined the JD(U)’s split with BJP, and ergo the main opposition NDA, on Monday morning, protagonists in both parties are reacting exactly thus. Like bitter divorcees at the end of a 17-year-old marriage, raking up old
In what could act as a deterrence to arbitrary appointment of IAS/IPS/IRS officers as private secretary (PS) to ministers, the department of personnel and training (DoPT) has issued an order by which officers who have not served their “cooli
Giving more teeth to the debate over black money in India, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), a global network of 160 reporters from across 60 countries, including India, on Saturday released an interactive database
Disclosure of information on one’s own (public authorities) volition, defined under section 4 of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, was supposed to be strongest pillar of the historic law that came into effect in 2005. It listed 17
Politics has triumphed over economics. The UPA-2 government, which is swamped by a series of scandals, took the least politically controversial route, even if it ended up against sensible business logic. The new guidelines on foreign direct invest
Privacy and democracy have always had an uneasy relationship in India. There has never been a simple formula to cook up the right mix that could secure personal information, while maintaining transparency. And with the digital world entering the m
Lobbies terrorise a key minister, put up with our demands or else..., they threaten him, with “dire consequences” as crime reports in our newspapers love to put it. Upright beyond imagination, the minister stands firm: no way will I gi
In Pakistan, the energy crisis is near-debilitating. So much so, that some citizens live virtually in the dark ages. Power is hardly there in normal hours, let alone the peak hours. Long power cuts are routine. So, inevitably, the ‘powerless
Having faced flak from the medical fraternity for putting its man in the medical council of India (MCI), the apex body to regulate uniform and high standards of medical education in the country, the health ministry now seems hell-bent on steamroll
The housing cooperatives union election in Mumbai, scheduled on June 15, has become mired in controversy. There are allegations that the poll has been rigged with only 2,000 of 18,000 housing societies registered with the Mumbai district c
With the government giving a go-ahead to cadre restructuring of the central board of direct taxes (CBDT), the clamour for a similar exercise in the central board of excise and customs (CBEC), another arm of the finance ministry’s department
