Fourth in a series of articles on civil society and governance, Jayaprakash Narayan answers a few commonly discussed questions.

Third in a series of articles on civil society and governance, Jayaprakash Narayan says that political parties have to be transformed and maintains that visions of partyless democracy are unalloyed idealism.

Fifth in the series of articles on civil society and governance Jayaprakash Narayan assesses the challenges from where a process of transformation must emerge.

Concluding the six-part series on civil society and governance, Jayaprakash Narayan lays down the framework for addressing India's governance crisis.

An Andhra Pradesh federation is aiming to transform the state's panchayats and municipalities into genuine Local Governments.

A Lok Satta report on the recently concluded AP signature campaign that met and exceeded the target of 10 million (one crore) signatures, indicating the support for local government empowerment amidst citizens.

Autonomy will not improve the IPS, instead it will simply make a system already tainted by its conduct even less accountable, says Arvind Verma.

Powerbrokers and opposition parties chip away at New Delhi's dominance in Centre-state relations, forcing changes to Article 356 and rules for labour. Prasenjit Maiti reports.

Members of parliament find many uses for their constituency development funds, but a number of these are simply photo-ops for the incumbents.

Creative use of technology will help our governing institutions improve their infrastructure. That in turn may bring both transparency and inclusive, efficient markets says Krishna Rupanagunta.

Year after year, Police refuse to act and file thousands of complaints made by citizens. Arvind Verma looks at the FIR mechanism that forms the basis of criminal investigation.

For the Railways, the key to crime-control is to concentrate on the smaller issues of orderliness, abatement of nuisances, petty crimes and rule of law.

Information technology can and must expand from merely being an agent of the trickle-down effect to active resource mobilization, says Krishna Rupanagunta.

Elections 2004 are around the corner and Jayaprakash Narayan points out that the 'hate-politicians' attitude is perilous to democracy itself.

Sajan Venniyoor asseses the upcoming public consultations on the second phase of FM Licensing in India.

As poverty in Karnataka acquires a larger urban face, municipal administrations must reorient themselves to meet basic needs, says Kathyayini Chamaraj.

What turns police personnel into instruments of violence against the underprivileged classes to which they often themselves belong? Arvind Verma has some answers.

At the heart of the PM's proposed shift in economic direction are efficient service delivery and local governance. He needs to begin down this road by showing a willingness to scrap top-down Delhi-driven schemes.

We need to think about how RTI could be used to ensure more "systemic" solutions, where the performance of our government institutions are discussed in a regular, predictable manner says Ramesh Ramanathan.

An "All Fun, All Day Long, For Everyone” amusement park in Kerala's Kochi region has not been fun for the local panchayat, reports M Suchitra.

Ashwin Mahesh shows how some states wield more power in Parliament than they would if statewise seat shares were fixed on the basis of population alone.

The Maharashtra elections are just around the corner and analyses are beginning to emerge on candidate background disclosures. But not long ago, 541 MPs were elected to the Lok Sabha. Samuel Paul and M Vivekananda of the Public Affairs Centre report findings from an analysis on our MPs' backgrounds.

Top-down water supply and sanitation schemes have failed the poor time and again. But for decentralization and community involvement to work, local governments -- municipalities -- must improve. Surekha Sule reports on the findings of a global assessment that included India.

In a recent lathi charge on protesting student activists, Kerala's police used electric shock batons. The state's model of development has many votaries worldwide, but the savageness in police actions on mass programmes does not seem to be going away, reports Venugopal P N.

Eight years and counting since the first local body elections, only a handful of the panchayats has woken up to the powers devolved into them. The Panchayat Academy is working to change that, helping local leaders learn from and teach each other how much more meaningful their leadership can be. Krithika Ramalingam reports.

Kerala's lottery regulation is in a mess. Liquor contractors are getting away without paying license fees that are precious revenue to a debt trapped government. The High Court passes a stricture on a minister over sandalwood smuggling. P N Venugopal finds much wrong with the Chandy administration.

When Executive Engineer S K Nagarwal reported corruption in railway track laying in West Bengal, his saga with colluding officials and contractors began. Now, supported by the S K Dubey foundation, a citizens' forum has sprung up to protect Nagarwal and other whistleblowers. Varupi Jain reports.

What does it take to make the bureaucracy responsive to the needs and expectations of citizens? A recent workshop in New Delhi on Developing Institutions for Public Accountability in Urban Services explored this question. Darryl D'Monte recounts some key observations made at the workshop.

Tamilnadu's foray into e-governance has not yet lived upto potential because policy makers may be implementing top-driven projects with little public participation. Still, the state does have its own examples of how things could work. Krithika Ramalingam reports.

In our system of criminal justice, the state takes up the responsibility to prosecute offenders on behalf of victims. Although public prosecutors are theoretically independent, in practice they face a number of improper influences. Bikram Jeet Batra surveys the prosecution system in India, and finds it in need of much change.

Two different bodies established by successive governments have made recommendations for sweeping changes to the system of representation and governance in urban areas. The opportunity is now at hand to bring these together, and ensure that wards are accessible and accountable to urban residents. Vinay Baindur reports.

An early warning by China on impending floods in the Sutlej river helped avert major loss to human lives in June. Yet, India's disaster preparedness plans have been found wanting. India still does not have reliable information from China about glacial lakes that are prone to flooding the Himalayan rivers, writes Sudhirendar Sharma.

Quick identification of the London bombers of 7/7 and early success in making an arrest testifies to an excellent investigation by Scotland Yard. In contrast, getting photographs, fingerprints and other records from government departments are far more difficult for India's police detectives, says Arvind Verma.

One month ago, on June 27, Vadodara and surrounding areas received the first monsoon rains after a 15-day delay. Citizens spent the first two days of rains in jubilation. On the third day, things went wrong. Surekha Sule assesses the recent floods that devastated one of Gujarat's leading cities.

After a lengthy process of consultation and debate, a model code for good governance is at the government's doorstep. Vinay Baindur lists its salient points, which if embraced by the Central government could go a long way towards erasing the history of poor administration in the country.

Reforms in urban governance are long overdue, and the cities are croaking under the weight of their neglect. But the National Urban Reforms Mission may be too much medicine, bypassing citizen input and consultation in a hasty drive for change. Vinay Baindur reports.

The Government of India constituted the Police Act Drafting Committee in September 2005 to draft a new Police Act. This is proposed to replace the colonial-era Police Act of 1861 that is still the governing law. The Committee's six month duration comes to an end on 31 January 2006. Arvind Verma says much is at stake.

The Police Act Drafting Committee's term came to an end on 31 January. Any significant attempt to reform the Indian police must begin with the men at the bottom, the constabulary, not at the top. However, such changes would call for a struggle against the nature of Indian society itself, says former IPS officer K S Subramanian.

There are many ideas about how change occurs. Each has some strengths and is able to influence government to some degree, for good as well as bad. I prefer advocacy of decency and an autonomy that benefits people directly over other methods, says Ashwin Mahesh.

Environmental clearances in India have always raised questions, as noted in many reports in India Together. For years now, NGOs have opposed the Ministry of Environment, sometimes bitterly. Last year, the Ministry proposed a 're-engineered' regulation, and found a new opposition - the state governments. Kanchi Kohli has more.

Two years after being appointed to the National Advisory Council, Aruna Roy has decided to decline a new term. While expressing happiness over some of the work the NAC has been able to do in the past, she now believes that the space for the advisory body to function as a forum for public consultation has diminished.

Our organically grown urban areas are very close to being the ideal mixed-land-use places that the West is now attempting to create. To leverage this phenomenon, there must be incentives to encourage development in the inner cities instead of in sprawling suburbs, writes Madhav Pai.

Both the Supreme Court and the Prime Minister recognised that rehabilitation for Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada river was incomplete, but neither was willing to fulfil their legal responsibility to actually stop construction. Instead, the the Shunglu Committee is now "independently" investigating rehabilitation and it appears compromised, worries Mike Levien.

Still dodging the constitutional requirement for devolution of powers to local bodies, the Centre is now demanding that cities fall in line with the 74th Amendment. The National Urban Renewal Mission is deeply flawed, and civic groups that have proposed steps to rectify it should be heeded, writes Kathyayini Chamaraj.

Certainly, there are flaws in the National Urban Renewal Mission, and mistakes will be made as it is rolled out. But this imperfect solution still represents the collective and well-intentioned efforts of many stakeholders, and we must engage with it. Ramesh Ramanathan responds to Kathyayini Chamaraj's criticism of the Mission.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's proposal for a North East Water Resources Authority to steer development along the Brahmaputra river basin in an integrated manner is both grand and glamorous. But how will the proposed Authority succeed where the Brahmaputra Board failed? This is still unclear, says Videh Upadhyay.

Police officers are uniform in the belief that political interference in their work is uniquitous. They also see themselves as crime fighters first and foremost, and hence view all other work as a distraction. But in fact, says Arvind Verma, there is little truth to either of these beliefs.

Held in Geneva last month, the Rotterdam Convention was attended by 500 participants from 140 governments, UN organisations, and NGOs. India sided with Canada and few other nations to prevent the listing of chrysotile asbestos, a known carcinogen. R Sridhar has more.

50 years from the scene of action, it can be safely said that the 28-month long EM Sankaran Namboodiripad government of April 1957 laid the foundation stones of present day Kerala. Whether the merits of the maiden government's reform attempts were consolidated in the following five decades is another story altogether, writes P N Venugopal.

The Supreme Court issued six directives in 2006 on bringing about police reforms in the states to make the police free from political interference and accountable to the citizens. Kathyayini Chamaraj analyses the state governments' responses and finds much amiss.