-The Business Standard The economic logic - and political reasons - behind the giant shift of spending power to the states Interim Budgets are not supposed to do this. This is precisely what they are not supposed to do. They are not supposed to lay out a policy change so vast it disempowers the next central government. But that's what P Chidambaram has done - and it appears to have been...

-Tehelka In their struggle for forest rights, the Baigas of Madhya Pradesh have adopted a form of protest dating back to the 1930s, says Shirish Khare An idol placed under a banyan tree passes for a temple in Masna village in Mandla district of Madhya Pradesh. Surrounded by dense forests, the village is inhabited by the "primitive" Baiga tribe. "The government has taken over our land and enclosed it with barbed...

-Kafila.org The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill was meant to be an enactment to codify India's obligations under the UNCRPD, which it ratified without reservations. There was a Committee set up in 2009 by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, headed by Smt. Sudha Kaul, to draft a Bill to this effect. Like the UNCRPD says, the Committee included different people with disabilities - across disabilities - to draft...

-The Times of India The Planning Commission periodically revises the poverty line at the all-India and state levels based on large household expenditure surveys of the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO). These are typically once in five years. The figures of Rs 10.8 per capita per day in Gujarat's rural areas and Rs 16.7 in urban areas are based on the Planning Commission determined state-specific poverty line based on NSSO data for...

-The Hindu Rights may be self-evident and constitutionally secured; however, they do not automatically implement themselves In the last two years the highest courts in the country have responded to a mass call for more protection for women. Alongside, there have been many judgments from non-constitutional decision-making bodies like khap panchayats and kangaroo courts sanctioning violence against particular women or curtailing women's Freedom in significant ways. Why is it that while there...