-The Indian Express Why we need to revisit the 74th Amendment The National Panchayati Raj Day to mark the enactment of the 73rd Constitutional Amendment was observed on April 24 with due ceremony but little hype. Whatever the reasons for the celebration, even those are not available for the 74th Amendment dealing with municipalities. The Government of India's first line of defence on this issue is that these are state subjects. Nevertheless, the...
More »SEARCH RESULT
“Why was court not told draft was shared with executive?”-J Venkatesan
-The Hindu The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the CBI Director to file an affidavit explaining why in the agency's status report dated March 8 no disclosure was made that the draft was shared with the executive and officials. A Bench of Justices R.M. Lodha, Madan B. Lokur and Kurian Joseph also wanted the CBI to indicate on what basis an assertive statement was made at the March 12 hearing, through its...
More »UN launches initiative to achieve ‘zero hunger’ in Asia and the Pacific
-The United Nations The United Nations today launched the Zero Hunger Challenge in Asia and the Pacific, calling on governments, farmers, scientists, business, civil society and consumers to work together to end hunger in the region where the majority of the world's undernourished people live. "Sustainable development and inclusive growth will not happen on empty stomachs," said Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the...
More »Coalgate: You don't need to take instructions from political masters, SC to CBI
-The Indian Express In a big embarrassment to the government in the Coalgate case, the Supreme Court today termed as 'very disturbing' the CBI affidavit on sharing its report with the Law Minister and others and slammed the agency for having kept the court in the dark on the issue. Hearing the coal blocks allocation scam case in a packed courtroom, the bench said 'suppression' of the fact that CBI has...
More »Strong medicine for poor countries-Nayanima Basu
-The Business Standard The Novartis verdict by the Supreme Court emphasised the importance of flexibilities in drug patent laws, in contrast to Western countries which are seeking TRIPS-plus hardening through free-trade agreements As curtains on the six-year-long legal tussle with Swiss drug giant Novartis AG finally came down earlier this month, the Indian government did not waste a second in hailing the Indian patent law which it said was in "full...
More »