-The Hindu Activist sought copy of proposed amendments An activist has accused the government of “illegally” withholding information about amendments proposed to the Right to Information Act, 2005, after her plea seeking details about the procedure followed was turned down. RTI activist Anjali Bharadwaj wrote to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) last month demanding to know when were the amendments to the Act proposed and forwarded to the Union Cabinet. She...

-The Hindu Clause on listing ingredients dropped. A group of Indian pesticide manufacturers says that the proposed Pesticides Management Bill, which is likely to be finalised this month, will harm both farmers and the domestic industry by not making it mandatory for the active ingredients of pesticides to be revealed in the registration process. “The draft Bill will allow importers to register readymade products without registering the active ingredients,” said Pradip Dave, President...

-ThePrint.in Over 15 lakh candidates had applied for the 28,915 vacancies announced by the UP Police Recruitment and Promotion Board in 2015. New Delhi: A recent notification by the Uttar Pradesh government announcing recruitment results for the police force came with a curious caveat: No information pertaining to the results will be provided under the RTI. This is a blatant violation of the RTI Act, which mandates every public body to be transparent...

-The Times of India THRISSUR: The state government has raised objection to the move of a man in Palakkad to get intellectual property (IP) rights over the Navara variety of rice. Agriculture minister V S Sunilkumar said as per the information received by the government, this person had applied for IP rights under the farmers’ right clause of the Protection of Plant Variety and Farmers Right Act, 2001 (PPV&FR Act). “He is known...

-Business Standard India studied the Malaysian model before implementing the GST and borrowed the anti-profiteering clause to ensure GST benefits are passed on to the end-consumer by the industry New Delhi: Malaysia deciding to scrap the goods and services tax (GST) on Wednesday, three years after its roll-out, may prompt India to tread with caution over the next few years to stabilise the new indirect tax regime implemented in July last year. Although...