The recent spike in world food prices has further widened the gap between the developed and the developing economies. While, over 70 per cent of the world's population resides in poor countries, it has access to less than 40 per cent of the world's resources such as water, irrigated land, power, etc. This is a result of inconsistent economic progress (post-colonialisation birth pangs), rampant population growth and distractions such as...

Three men went missing in Indian-administered Kashmir in April. Nothing extraordinary about that, but some time later their bodies were discovered near the Line of Control (LoC), which separates Indian- and Pakistani-administered Kashmir - a fate which militants trying to cross the border often meet. But during investigations, the police discovered that the men had been killed in a staged gun battle in a frontier area. The probe also revealed that a senior...

They express shock at reports that it has been finalised Discussions still on to decide the final shape of Bill Recommendations made to NAC “non-negotiable” Even as the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) is holding consultations with a cross-section of civil society groups to evolve consensus on the Communal Violence (Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation of Victims) Bill, so that their suggestions can be incorporated in the final text, before it is brought...

Even as the department of civil supplies and consumer affairs conducts consumer rights’ awareness events in rural areas periodically, lack of councils and laboratory facilities are dampening consumer activism in Goa, say consumer rights’ experts. They point out that both district consumer courts, set up under the justice redressal system of the Consumer Protection Act (CPA), 1986 are in urban areas. This makes it difficult for rural consumers to approach...

In the absence of whole-hearted steps to implement the provisions effectively, the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 is falling short of expectations.  The Delhi High Court ruled recently that a woman can also be held liable under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005. This the court did on the basis of the interpretation that ‘relatives' included not only male but also female members of...