The official details of the signing of the instrument of accession by Maharajah Hari Singh of Kashmir has not only been kept under secrecy for 75 years now by successive governments, but has even led to several decades of allegations of motives and vested interests regarding the document. An...

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"We need to keep on with jan andolans, dharnas and morchas, but politicians in the government are scared of only losing their power. In a democracy, citizens have this power. They can strip any government of its power. For better governance, we need to work towards empowering citizens," says...

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The Mumbai Monorail, feeder system to the Mumbai metro, which has had a bumpy ride so far, has announced plans to get 10 new rakes and increase speed and capacity of the project, whose very existence has been questioned my many experts. But none of this is happening anytime soon. In fact, by...

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The Pandora Papers show how several rich and powerful Indians, including tax defaulters and corporate entities, form offshore Trusts and companies by exploiting loopholes in our tax laws, park their money and buy assets in tax sanctuaries while the ordinary citizen shudders at the prospect of...

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Anna Hazare may have catapulted to nationwide recognition in 2010, but this stalwart social reformer has been a campaigner and catalyst for social change in Maharashtra for at least seven decades. After the 'India Against Corruption'’ campaign disbanded and turned political, this humble man...

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This story was originally published by ProPublica.   When ProPublica compared the richest Americans’ wealth gains to the taxes they paid, we found a system that benefits billionaires. White House economists recently used a similar method to calculate tax rates, revealing stark...

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In more than three hours of riveting testimony, a former Facebook employee tore into the now embattled social networking giant, blaming its "metrics" driven culture for hurting children, fueling hate and walking away from ethical considerations because profits come first.   Frances...

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The news of China’s Evergrande group on the brink of default halted the euphoric markets for a day or two in the past week. Amidst conflicting news of a possible deal, markets forgot the situation is far from over and scaled new heights. With over $300 billion in debt, the largest...

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"The critical assumption of democracy is information, that everyone has equal access to information. Right to Information (RTI) Act is not merely a law but is very critical to the foundation of democracy. It is not just a law but the architecture of our constitution and is a vital link. A lot...

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Right to Information (RTI) activist Bipin Agarwal, a resident of Motihari town of East Champaran district of Bihar, was shot dead on 24th September in broad daylight on a busy road, by two assailants astride a motorcycle. They allegedly killed him because of his incessant exposure of illegal...

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Forty-two countries now have levels of public debt exposure to China in excess of 10 per cent of GDP.   AidData, an international development research lab based at William & Mary's Global Research Institute, today released a trove of new findings about China's secretive overseas...

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China has now started rolling blackouts in Beijing and Shanghai, metropolises home to 48 million people, as the country struggles with crippling power shortages that have hit key factories in a further threat to the economy, Nikkei reported.   The Beijing office of State Grid Corp. of...

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This story was originally published by ProPublica.   Secret IRS records show billionaires use trusts that let them pass fortunes to their heirs without paying estate tax. Will Congress end a tax shelter that has cost the Treasury untold billions?   It’s well known, at least...

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Real interest rates have turned negative in India (which means the interest rate is lower than inflation), as has happened in the US and Europe some years back. This has created many problems for savers, especially senior citizens, many of whom have kept most of their money safely with banks....

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In a rare action, Rahul Singh, information commissioner (IC) of Madhya Pradesh (MP) has issued an arrest warrant on 20th September against Dr Vikram Singh Verma, chief medical and health officer (CMHO) of Burhanpur district, who is also the public information officer (PIO). Mr Singh was irked...

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The High Courts have a poor record of proactive disclosures under section 4 of the Right to Information (RTI) Act in terms of implementation and quality of dissemination of such information on their respective websites. This can be gauged from the fact that only 15 of the 24 High Courts have...

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As many as 15 sitting and former information commissioners (ICs) have urged chief justice NV Ramana to direct courts, which are routinely invoking their writ jurisdiction to pass stay orders against decisions given by the information commission on Right to Information (RTI) appeals, to...

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This story was originally published by ProPublica.   A long-suppressed FBI report on Saudi Arabia’s connections to the 9/11 plot has revealed that Saudi religious officials stationed in the United States had more significant connections to two of the hijackers than has been previously...

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Such a parody! At one end, there is the special protection group (SPG), a paramilitary force whose sole objective is to provide proximate security to the prime minister (PM) of India. At the other, the PMO (prime minister's office), where visitors’ records need not be kept! This is revealed...

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This story was originally published by ProPublica.   WhatsApp assures users that no one can see their messages — but the company has an extensive monitoring operation and regularly shares personal information with prosecutors.   When Mark Zuckerburg unveiled a new...

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