-The Times of India The free trade agreement that European Union is pushing India to sign could put an end to India's status as the pharmacy of the developing providing affordable medicines, especially HIV drugs to countries like Brazil, Thailand, South Africa, Zimbabwe and several others. The negotiations with EU are on at a feverish pace this week in Brussels even before the parliamentary standing committee looking into the free trade...

Groups from across India gathered in Delhi recently to assess the Forest Rights Act’s journey since 2006. The law is often dubbed as ‘landmark’ because it ended the age-old illegality surrounding communities living in forest areas by entitling them to individual and community land title. It also went beyond the colonial paradigms of the forest bureaucracy to recognise community efforts at protecting and preserving forests. Numerous groups and individuals working...

-The Times of India LUCKNOW: The government has spent crores on promoting Hindi in the country and abroad in recent years. A recent RTI query sent to the department of language (DOL) has revealed that Rs 348.90 crore was allocated between 2009 and 2012 to develop and promote the language. The DOL's reply to the RTI query justifies the largesse, saying that the money has been well spent. Anticipating the question why...

-Outlook The US is going ahead with its resolution against Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva as the Rajapaksha government has failed to fulfill its international obligations, which it promised after the fall of the LTTE, the Obama Administration said today. Without naming any one, State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland told reporters at her daily news conference that the US is working with a lot of governments who...

-The Hindu There is no Lokpal yet, but the Centre’s Grievance Redressal Bill promises to cut through bureaucracy and corruption that plague government services. The citizen is hoping for a repeat of the RTI Act story. A year after the UPA came to power in 2004, it brought the Right to Information Act, ushering in a revolution: citizens, for the first time, could access information under the control of public authorities, whether...