-The Hindu However well-intentioned the Supreme Court might be in its efforts to cleanse the political system of criminals, its decision to bar any person who is in jail or in police custody from contesting an election to legislative bodies is a case of the remedy being worse than the disease. By extending the curtailment of the right to vote of a person in prison or lawful police custody to...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Even as the Election Commission plans consultations with political parties in the first week of August on a recent Supreme Court order seeking framing of guidelines for parties' poll manifestoes, senior commission officials are in a dilemma on how to define a "freebie" in the first place. The poll watchdog plans to sound out all recognized national and state parties in the first week of August...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The days of politicians fighting elections from jail are over. The Supreme Court has ruled that a person, who is in jail or in police custody, cannot contest elections to legislative bodies. The far-reaching order was passed by the apex court along with its landmark verdict that MPs, MLAs and MLCs would be disqualified the day they are convicted. This double whammy against criminals in Indian...

-The Business Standard The right to food is finally becoming a lively political issue in India. Aware of the forthcoming general elections, parties are competing to demonstrate - or at least proclaim - their commitment to food security. In a country where endemic undernutrition has been accepted for too long as natural, this is a breakthrough of sorts. The food security Bill is a modest initiative. It consolidates various food-related programmes and...

-The Hindu Uttarakhand reiterates that our rulers have contemptuous disregard for the advice of the best scientists and would rather listen to contractors and builders to whom they are beholden for funds In the early 1980s, while doing research on the environmental history of Uttarakhand, I sometimes visited the library of the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology in Dehradun. Most of the journals in the library dealt with geology and earth sciences,...