-The Indian Express On a suit filed by PepsiCo India Holdings Pvt Ltd, the Ahmedabad city civil court earlier this month had barred four farmers of Sabarkantha district — Bipin Patel, Chhabil Patel, Vinod Patel and Haribhai Patel — from growing and selling potatoes till April 26. Ahmedabad: Leading rights groups and individuals working for farmers’ rights in the country have sought Central government’s intervention to protect at least nine farmers...

-The Telegraph The time for informality is over — the Election Commission’s stature requires legal heft When Winston Churchill stood for re-election as prime minister in 1945 after leading Britain to victory in the Second World War, few could have predicted his resounding defeat at the hustings. Churchill was the same fiery, belligerent and all-powerful leader inspiring awe amongst his countrymen. Yet the country had slowly but surely changed when nobody was...

-The Hindu It is shocking that a democratic government is seeking to strengthen the colonial-era Indian Forest Act The Indian Forest Act, 1927 was a remarkable piece of expropriation in the name of conservation. The British government carried out one of the largest land expropriations in history, where the rights to occupy and use forests were transferred from communities with customary and historical property rights to the colonial Central government. The act...

-The Hindu Guwahati: Kishorechandra Wangkhem, the 39-year-old television anchor who was freed on Wednesday after four months in prison on charges of sedition under NSA, said he would continue to fight for freedom of speech. He also said that he would do his bit towards getting another “draconian piece of law” — the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act of 1958 — scrapped. “NSA and AFSPA are draconian Laws not suitable for a...

-The Hindu No Laws mandating disposal; volume estimated at 1.8 million tonnes by 2050 By 2050, India will likely stare at a pile of a new category of electronic waste, namely solar e-waste, says a study made public on Thursday. Currently, India’s e-waste rules have no Laws mandating solar cell manufacturers to recycle or dispose waste from this sector. “India’s PV (photovoltaic) waste volume is estimated to grow to 200,000 tonnes by 2030...