Seeks to implead himself in contempt proceedings in Supreme Court against his son In a new twist to the contempt of court proceedings initiated against advocate Prashant Bhushan for his interview in the Tehelka magazine levelling allegations of corruption against sitting Judges of the Supreme Court, his father and former Union Law Minister, Shanti Bhushan, on Thursday filed an application alleging that eight of the 16 former Chief Justices of India...

The controversy following resignation of Justice Santosh Hegde, the Lok Ayukt of Karnataka, and the subsequent amends purported to have been made by the Karnataka Government has again highlighted the failure of the Lok Pal legislative history at the Centre and equally the passivity and reluctance of all political parties to pass this legislation, which is most urgently desired, if the attempt to control the rapid drift downward to political...

KEY TRENDS   • Maternal Mortality Ratio for India was 370 in 2000, 286 in 2005, 210 in 2010, 158 in 2015 and 145 in 2017. Therefore, the MMRatio for the country decreased by almost 61 percent between 2000 and 2017 *14    • As per the NSS 71st round, among rural females aged 5-29 years, the main reasons for dropping out/ discontinuance were: engagement in domestic activities, not interested in education, financial constraints and marriage. Among rural males aged...

Multinational drug companies appear to have used the Prime Minister’s Office to try and influence government policies that may severely undermine availability of affordable medicines, a group of non-government organisations has said. In a joint letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, 50 NGOs said the PMO had asked the ministry of health and the departments of legal affairs and industrial policy to examine intellectual property rights issues raised by foreign pharmaceutical...

Television and print media have been awash with pictures of stacks of sacks of rotting foodgrain. And played in an almost infinite loop, these pictures become obviously powerful. They can become a call to urgent and revolutionary action. This perhaps accounts for the emotive appeal of the Supreme Court’s recent intervention on distributing this grain, and to keep procurement commensurate with available storage facilities. It does not, however, explain the...