Reports

Almost one in four Right to Information (RTI) rejections in India have been made by the Ministry of Finance, according to the RTI Annual Return Reports for 2005-2010. Adjusted for the number of requests received, the Finance Ministry tops the rejection rate at 24 per cent, followed by the Prime Minister’s Office (12 per cent) and the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (11 per cent), an analysis of the reports by the PRS Legislative Research (PRS) has revealed. The Finance Ministry possibly...

India is simply not doing enough for its women. The country has fallen by one rank &mdash from 112 out of 134 countries in 2010 to 113 out of 135 countries &mdash according to the Gender Gap Index 2011 released by the World Economic forum (WEF) on Wednesday. Over the last six years, while 85 per cent of countries are improving their gender equality ratios, for the rest of the world the situation is declining, most notably in several African and South American countries. The sixth annual World...

Things are not improving in India at all. In fact, things are going from bad to worse. India's rank in the Human Development Index (HDI) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has fallen from 119 in 2010 to 134 this year. India’s HDI value for 2011 is 0.547—in the medium human development category—positioning the country at 134 out of 187 countries and territories. Between 1980 and 2011, India’s HDI value increased from 0.344 to 0.547, an increase of 59.0 per cent or average annual...

ndia ranks 19th among 28 countries where public officials have to be bribed when doing business abroad, according to a survey of 3,000 business executives from developed and developing countries. Transparency International’s 2011 Bribe Payers Index, released today, ranks 28 leading international and regional exporting countries by the likelihood of their firms to bribe abroad. Companies from Russia and China, who invested US $120 billion overseas in 2010, are seen as most likely to pay bribes...

Food prices in India continue to rise when when international prices are stable because of the failure of domestic food management, wherein temporary shortages have led to price spikes, the Interntional Labour Organization (ILO) has said. Over the past two years wholesale food prices have increased by 40 per cent much more than during the mid-1990s and 2004, and the retail food prices have increased faster, the ILO said at the release of World of Work Report 2011: Making markets work for jobs...

With the birth of Nargis in a village 40 km from Lucknow this morning, the world's population touched seven billion. Lucknow is the capital of India’s most populous state Uttar Pradesh. Nargis, weighing 3kg, was born at 7:20 this morning to Ajay (25) and Vineeta (23) at a local community health centre in Mall village, about 40 km from Lucknow, Davinder Kumar, Global Press Officer (Asia & Americas), Plan International, told this correspondent over phone. The parents want to see her educated, and...

The National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights has ordered an inquiry into the allegation that a coercive circular by the Kerala government to its public education department was meant to deploy an online school management software called “Sampoorna” in schools across the State in a manner that it would violate the right to privacy and dignity of children in the state. In a letter to the Secretary of the Education Department, Govternment of Kerala, the NCPCR on Friday asked the...

When Manas National Park was removed from the UNESCO World Heritage in Danger List in June this year, there was a lot to cheer about. The hard work put in by conservation groups has been recognised, but a bigger danger lies in the future — one that can virtually wash away the national park. Well, almost. If a recent study conducted by Partha J Das (Head, Water, Climate & Hazard Programme) and Bibhab K Talukdar (Secretary General) of Aaranyak is to be taken even with a pinch of salt, there's much...

Indian retailers suffered the highest loss of stocks to theft in the world for the fifth year in a row in 2011. Half of this loss was attributed to shoplifting by customers. The silver lining here was that India is the world’s only country where the shrink rate (loss of stocks because of thefts by customer, employees and supplier) came down in 2011, according to the Global Retail Theft Barometer 2011. The shrink rate as a percentage of sales was 2.38 per cent, costing local retailers Rs 3,470...

The beleaguered United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has decided to give a Diwali gift to Indian journalists. The Union Cabinet on Tuesday approved the final Majithia Wage Board recommendations, which will benefit more than 45,000 journalists and non-journalists in the country. The revised wages, with hikes ranging from 10 per cent to 30 per cent, will come into force with retrospective effect from July 2010. Allowances, such as transport, house rent and hardship shall be effective from...