-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: As many as 882 deaths in five years, nearly four-fifths of them in a single state. These statistics do not pertain to some inexorable natural calamities. These are figures of tribal children who lost their lives in state-run residential schools across the country between 2010 and 2015. These are numbers of innocent lives lost seemingly on account of sheer official apathy, manifest in the lack of basic...

-The Hindu The Aadhaar Bill has been passed with no public consultation about the privacy safeguards necessary for such a database and no provision for public or independent oversight. The rights to liberty and freedom of expression cannot survive if the right to privacy is compromised. The Central government has forced the Aadhaar Bill through Parliament in a week. Aadhaar has had an invasive and controversial presence well before the government’s attempt...

As Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh fight the fury of flood caused by annual northeast monsoon, a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on the natural disaster in Uttarakhand, which took place in June 2013, has been made available in the public domain recently. The CAG report discloses how various development activities in the state flouted guidelines issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Expert Committee on glaciers...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: At a time when the Centre is being cornered for not being able to rein in its ministers and leaders of the ruling party who are making provocative speeches, the government has justified before the Supreme Court the retention of penal provision for hate speeches and has even supported the prosecution of BJP leader Subramanian Swamy for promoting hatred between Hindus and Muslims. According to the...

-The Hindu A day after getting relief from the Madras High Court, environmental group Greenpeace India on Thursday withdrew its writ petition in the Delhi High Court challenging suspension of its registration under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) and freezing of five bank accounts. The Madras High Court had on Wednesday granted an interim stay for eight weeks on the Ministry of Home Affairs order of September 2 cancelling the non-government...