-ANI The statistics for farmer suicides in India are as striking as they are shameful. One farmer suicide every 30 minutes in 2009, screamed a NYU School of Law report earlier this year. If one accepts that many suicides also go unreported, even this shocking statistics is perhaps an under-estimation. Why, then, would another three suicides, this time in Madhya Pradesh's Hoshangabad District, be newsworthy? For one, the suicides took place during the...

The most-debated aspect of the bill is its recommendation for substantial payouts to people living in mining areas, including a profit-sharing clause that seeks to have companies pay out 26% of their net profit The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) (MMDR) bill, which seeks to replace a decades-old mining law, has been introduced in the Lok Sabha, an official in Parliament said on Monday. The government has drafted the new bill...

-Bloomberg Talks on EU climate policies may get new impetus after Denmark takes over the rotating presidency in January The European Union (EU) is set to resume talks early next year about moving to a stricter carbon goal after countries worldwide backed its plan to start work toward a climate treaty that will be enacted by 2020. Europe pledged on Sunday after the conclusion of a two-week United Nations (UN) climate summit in...

How deluded we are when we think that when an important piece of legislation is introduced, policymakers carefully scrutinise it for some room for improvement. Indian democracy is good at passing progressive-sounding legislation that becomes unpopular later for poor implementation and a consequent feeling of letdown and therefore resentment. Often the problems of poor implementation that surface later stem from small mistakes in design that could have been corrected at...

Notwithstanding Rahul Gandhi's reported assurances to the AIMPLB to keep madrassasoutside the purview of the RTE Act, there is an urgent need to formalise madrassa education. Almost 90% of underprivileged Muslim children attend madrassas. However, devoid of a modern curriculum, madrassas are unable to equip these students for the contemporary job market. This in turn limits their economic opportunities. By BRInging madrassas under the provisions of the RTE Act, the Islamic seminaries...