-First Post Predictably, the recommendation by an experts’ panel appointed by the Supreme Court  - that trials of genetically modified (GM) crops should be halted for 10 years – has stirred a hornet’s nest. Such a moratorium would include ongoing trials and the court rejected it. This follows on the heels of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture’s 492-page report published in August which asked for the banning of GM food crops...

-CNN-IBN Inside the crumbling housing estates of Shivaji Enclave, amid the boys playing cricket and housewives chatting from their balconies, winding staircases Lead to places where lies a darker side to India's economic boom. Three months ago, police rescued Theresa Kerketa from one of these tiny two-roomed flats. For four years, she was kept here by a placement agency for domestic maids, in between stints as a virtual slave to Delhi's...

-The Hindu The direct cash transfer scheme launched a year ago in Kotkasim for providing kerosene subsidies has pushed legitimate beneficiaries out of the system The nondescript town of Kotkasim in the Alwar district of Rajasthan had its Peepli Live moment after it was chosen for a pilot experiment with “direct cash transfers” of kerosene subsidies. According to the district administration, the scheme led to net savings of 79 per cent in...

-The Hindu The Leveson report on the British press should jolt the Indian media into acting against ills such as paid news, and focus on being an agent of progressive social change After an inquiry lasting a year, Lord Justice Leveson has delivered a damning verdict on the decades of “outrageous” behaviour by the media. If anything, this verdict would apply in even greater force to a large section (not all) of...

-The Indian Express The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) should amend the Rules for Nuclear Liability Act as per Parliamentary Standing Committee recommendations, Greenpeace has demanded. In a statement issued on the 28th anniversary of Bhopal gas tragedy, Greenpeace cautioned DAE of repeating mistakes that Lead to mismanagement of Bhopal disaster. The environmental watchdog is demanding that the DAE should amend Rules for the Nuclear Liability Act as per the recommendations made by...