-The Times of India An average Indian lived 4.6 years longer in 2008 compared to a decade earlier. An average Indian woman lived three years more than her male counterpart in 2008. While the life expectancy at birth for women was 67.7 years, for men it stood at 64.6 years. This was an increase of 2.5 years and 1.8 years, respectively, when compared to the life expectancy (LE) in 2002. According to the...

-Forbes India Why the recent Supreme Court ruling threatens to kill citizens’ Right to Information The Supreme Court has placed the Central Information Commission (CIC), the apex body to deal with appeals regarding RTI, as well as the Information Commissions across the states in a fine pickle. On September 13, a division bench of the Supreme Court, chaired by Justice AK Patnaik and Justice Swatanter Kumar, passed an order which would fundamentally change...

-The Hindu “Environmental impact assessment tends to ignore wider impact on biodiversity” In a move that will BRIng cheer to wildlife lovers but could dismay industry lobbyists already complaining about the difficulty in obtaining green clearances, the government plans to add biodiversity conservation as a new criterion to grant environmental and forest clearances. “There is no biodiversity clearance till now,” admitted Union Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan, speaking ahead of the United Nations summit...

-The Indian Express Emphasising on validation of rights of tribals and forest-dwellers over the forest lands, the Supreme Court has said that Naxalism was a result of an oversight of constitutional provisions relating to administration of schedule areas and tribes of the country. “Nobody looks at Schedules V and VI of the Constitution and the result is Naxalism. Urbanites are ruling the nation. Even several union of India counsel are oblivious of...

-The Times of India The Supreme Court on Monday took serious note of a PIL alleging that there had been apathy on the Centre and Manipur government's part to BRIng to book the guilty among armed forces and state police, which allegedly were responsible for 1,528 extra-judicial killings in last 30 years. The impact of the magnitude of extra-judicial killings of innocent citizens in Manipur was visible on a bench of Justice...