The Supreme Court on Wednesday started hearing the debate on legality of decriminalising same sex behaviour in private among consenting adults by asking contestants whether the “order of nature” changes with time. The court was hearing a bunch of petitions challenging a Delhi High Court judgment on July 2, 2009, which ruled that sexual intercourse among adults of the same sex is not a criminal offence under Section 377 of the...

-The Hindu Business Line The Tamil Nadu Government has urged the Centre to expedite financial assistance for its Rs 700 crore scheme to computerise the PDS with a view to increase efficiencies of operation. It also pleaded with the Centre to exempt the State from the purview of the proposed Food Security law and reconsider its decision to implement the Targetted Public Distribution System. According to a copy of the speech by the...

Discovery of a deadly form of TB in a Mumbai hospital  underscores mismanagement In December last, when doctors at Hinduja Hospital in Mumbai raised the alarm over a deadly form of tuberculosis, the Union health ministry was quick to refute the claim. In its press release on January 17, the ministry said the term “totally drug resistant TB” is “misleading”; it is neither recognised by the national programme for TB control...

In a report released on January 30, and covered by the world’s press the next day, the United Nations has warned of a severe resource crisis that would overtake the world if current trends persist. A growing population and a rise in the number of middle-class consumers will increase the demand for resources so rapidly that even by 2030 the world will need at least 50 per cent more food,...

Meet Vinay Rai, the man who took Google, Facebook and 20 others to court for posting ‘objectionable content’ Sitting in a plush office in Noida, Vinay Rai, 39, says he is a troubled man these days. He claims he does not want to be seen as a social activist fighting for censorship of the internet social network websites and search engines Facebook and Google. He is the one ‘activist’ whose name...