-The Hindu A study shows that Indians are not immune to health consequences of smoking and that smokers have a higher death rate than non-smokers. Recently, a parliamentary committee declined to extend the size of health warnings on cigarette packets due to lack of independent evidence on the health impacts of smoking on the Indian population. A longitudinal study conducted by the National Council of Applied Economics (NCAER) and University of Maryland shows that in...

-Business Standard According to a proposal by the Union labour ministry, 10 per cent of the employees or 100 workers will be needed at least to form a trade union Barely a week after trade unions across the country celebrate the Labour Day, the National Democratic Alliance government will meet workers' and industry representatives on May 6 to discuss proposals to make forming unions tougher and union activities more rule-bound. The proposals to...

-The Hindu The Environment Minister insists on clearing all hydro projects, even when the government itself earlier agreed that the Himalayas must be avoided for development work. A battle of epic proportions between the hydroelectric power companies and the people of Uttarakhand has now culminated with the struggle shifting to the office of the Prime Minister of India. It began with the extraordinary and far-sighted 2014 decision of the Supreme Court in...

-The Hans India The three-day camp sitting will look into a slew of complaints During its three-day camp sitting, the commission will also hold an ‘open hearing’ on April 22 on the problems and grievances of Scheduled Castes who have complaints of atrocities committed by public servants Hyderabad: The National Human Rights Commission will be holding its three-day camp at Hyderabad for the States of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana from April 22 to...

-The Hindu The government has refused RTI requests for information on the decision-making process on amendments to Land Acquisition Bill. On January 17, Chitrangada Choudhury, a Fellow with the Open Society Institute, filed an RTI request with the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), seeking documents, file notings and correspondence between the MoRD and other authorities relating to any proposed amendments to the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, and the NDA’s December 2014 ordinance. Two...