In a country where inter-departmental coordination hardly takes place in the government, a joint exercise undertaken by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) is bearing fruits. The NCRB has started coordinating with the RBI for collection and sharing of Fake Indian Currency Note (FICN) data. The new tables, which have been introduced in the NCRB's annual publication on crime, reveal that although the...

-The Hindu Deregulating bamboo production does not address the issue of building a transparently governed forest sector Governments everywhere tend to look for quick-fixes, overlooking complexities and ignoring the big picture. The move by the Centre to “de-regulate” bamboo production by amending the definition of “trees” under the Indian Forest Act (IFA), 1927, is a great example of this tendency. In November 2017, the Central government issued an ordinance whereby “bamboo” was...

-The Times of India BENGALURU: For most residents of Bhangi colony near KR Market, pressing on the Aadhaar-enabled point-of-sale (PoS) machine at the nearby ration store is a crucial exercise that is riddled with unpredictability. For, the machine could deny their share of subsidized food, simply by not recognizing their thumb impression. Despite most of them having successfully seeded their Aadhaar numbers with ration cards, many are struggling to get foodgrains from...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday fined 11 states and a Union territory Rs 2 lakh each for failing to furnish details of welfare measures for destitute widows. Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Mizoram, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Arunachal Pradesh, and the Union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli had failed to provide the information to a court-appointed panel. The committee of experts was set...

-The Hindu Low conviction rates and a lack of a lawful definition of crime mark criminal administration in India Police reform in India has been concerned with political interference ever since the landmark Supreme Court judgement, in 2006, on the subject. The focus should really be on reorganising criminal administration. The annual publication of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), “Crime in India 2016”, which was released recently, presents a dismal picture of...