The article was originally published in Article 14. Read here. New Delhi: For a country that was found to have one of Asia’s worst bribery rates in 2020, there appear to be very few complaining of corruption in the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi—if you count the number of cases registered with the Lokpal, India’s corruption-fighting independent, national…
The article was originally published in The Quint. Read here. “What happened to that?” As heated arguments on the Pegasus snooping issue flew back and forth in the Supreme Court on Monday, 13 September, senior advocate Kapil Sibal asked a pertinent question. He had been trying to establish to the judges how even the union government had acknowledged…
The article was originally published in Article 14. Read here. New Delhi: The number of people who died in 24 Uttar Pradesh (UP) districts over nine months to 31 March 2021 was, cumulatively, 43 times higher than the total official Covid-19 death toll reported from these districts over this period, according to mortality data for…
The article was originally published in Article 14. Read here. New Delhi: Act fairly to ensure the rule of law, ensure there is no failure of justice, and avoid future embarrassment. This was the advice two of its own legal advisers gave to the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, pointing out that new rules passed…
The article was originally published in Firstpost. Read here. Most experts agree that Centre has fixed current price of COVID-19 vaccine at Rs 250 only after factoring in the reduced expenses of the two companies, large volume of orders they are to get, affordability of the masses and the major hurdle of vaccine hesitancy it faces….
The article was originally published in Firstpost. Read here. Centre in response to an RTI filed said that it currently has no proposal to indemnify or exempt vaccine manufacturers from any liability in case of serious side-effects/adverse reactions due to inoculation of their vaccines. On 3 January, the Government of India gave its final approval for…
The article was originally published in The Logical Indian. Read here. Want to know how Modi govt prepared to handle immediate consequences of sudden national lockdown? You can’t. Centre cites “national security”, trust issues, to deny information on an RTI filed by Saurav Das on behalf of The Logical Indian. The sudden national lockdown announced by Prime…
The article was originally published in The Quint. Read here. It is now official what privacy activists have long been worried about. Responses to RTI queries reveal that the Government of India has failed to implement measures to safeguard and secure data of millions of Indians collected by the controversial COVID-19 tracing app, Aarogya Setu. Two days after…
The article was originally published in The Logical Indian. Read here. In a bizarre reply to an RTI filed by this author on behalf of The Logical Indian, the Supreme Court of India has said that the judgement pronouncing implementation of live streaming of court proceedings is “under consideration of the Registry”. In September 2018, a…
The article was originally published in The Logical Indian. Read here. Dr. Harsh Vardhan’s half-hearted assurance that government is not dependent on foreign loans is hollow, since documents accessed by Saurav Das on behalf of The Logical Indian revealed loans were taken even for Rs 22 crores from a foreign bank in June. Harsh Vardhan failed to…
The article was originally published in The Logical Indian. Read here. RTI filed by Saurav Das on behalf of The Logical Indian reveals that Centre’s Rs 15,000 Crore COVID-19 Package announced in April 2020 was entirely financed through international loans, with experts calling it “absolutely unnecessary, a currency risk” and that it “significantly adds to repayment costs”….
The article was originally published in The Logical Indian. Read here. RTI filed by Saurav Das on behalf of The Logical Indian reveals that despite it being 6 months since the first national lockdown, UP CM Yogi Adityanath is yet to provide food under the Mid-Day Meal scheme to all the 1.8 crore eligible children of the…