-The Hindu Birth certificates not needed any more; grievances will be now handled on Twitter. In a move to speed up and simplify the passport delivery process, the government on Friday announced a series of steps that would help single mothers, orphaned children, and sadhus obtain passports with ease. Announcing the changes that will relax the need for birth certificates in the application process, Minister of State for External Affairs General (retd.) V.K....

-The Hindu Shaktikanta Das says Rs. 12.44 lakh crore in invalid notes may not have come back to banks The Finance Ministry on Thursday said the Rs. 12.44 lakh crore figure reported by the Reserve Bank of India as the amount having been deposited in banks since the November 8 demonetisation announcement could be inflated due to double-counting. Department of Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das said the RBI had infused three times the...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government has started to fumble for explanations, with the original raison d'etre for the demonetisation drive coming under strain because of the high volume of cash deposits that have poured into bank accounts. Almost 80 per cent of the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes that were demonetised on November 9 has come straight back into the banking system, prompting the government to change the...

-Hindustan Times The ministry of information and broadcasting’s advisory to media to exercise restraint in their coverage of violence over Cauvery water dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu has once again brought to the fore the issue of social responsibility of the fourth estate. There is a fine line between accuracy and balance and in times of crisis – such as the one being witnessed in the two states – the distinction...

Access to land and its resources is important since it determines the extent of poverty and deprivation one faces. Historically tribal populations and other traditional forest dwellers did not enjoy any legal entitlement such as ownership rights or user rights of the forest lands where they had been living since ages, both communally and individually. The Forest Rights Act (FRA) is, thus, seen as a progressive legislation that attempted to...