-Economic and Political Weekly The Indian weaver is dismissed in high places as an embarrassing anachronism, despite demand for his or her skills and products. In the new millennium, globalisation and a mindless acquiescence to imported notions of a good life threaten to take over, even as the West looks East for better concepts of sustainable living. Analysing today's crisis in the handloom sector, plagued by low-cost imitations from power looms,...

-The Hindu The Union government has denied plans to develop a DNA database of citizens, similar to the biometric database of Aadhaar, as feared by many when the Human DNA Profiling Bill was introduced in the Monsoon Session of Parliament. In a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Y.S. Chowdary said the government did not propose to establish a DNA databank of...

-Business Standard The government has sought parliamentary approval for an extra Rs 18,995 crore social sectors during 2015-16, almost half of the total extra spending asked for over the Budget Estimates (BE). In a supplementary demand for grants, tabled in Parliament last week, the government placed additional expenditure for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), National Food Security Act (NFSA), Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, drinking water scheme, Pradhan Mantri Gram...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The human DNA profiling Bill, as recommended by an official expert committee, has controversial clauses dealing with "issues relating to pedigree" and introducing an intrusive mode of collecting samples from living persons called "intimate forensic procedure". This procedure detailed in the draft Bill due to be introduced in the current session of Parliament involves collection of "intimate body samples" of living persons from "the genital or...

A long-pending demand of civil society activists and NGOs, who are campaigning for probity, accountability, and transparency in public life, is going to be fulfilled soon. A welcome move has been made by the Government to enumerate and publish data on crimes committed against media persons, Right to Information activists, and whistleblowers in the forthcoming edition of Crime in India, which is published annually by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)...