-The Hindu Even as political cartoons have come under attack from some unamused politicians — triggering debates on the purpose and importance of cartoons and Freedom of speech — the annual award list for the cartooning contest held in the memory of political cartoonist Maya Kamath was announced. Winners all A Pakistani cartoonist, an acclaimed caricaturist from Bangalore and a Delhi artist finished at the top of the contest, which drew a total...

How an image-fixated chief minister has bent the state’s media to his will If you haven’t heard of an income tax raid on the residential premises of Nitish Kumar’s close aide and treasurer of the ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U), Vinay Kumar Sinha, you are not alone. Thanks to the local media, it took a while even in Patna—where the house is located—for people to get to know. This, incidentally, is the...

-The Telegraph The Centre has clarified that none of the provisions in the Right to Education Act (RTE) will apply to unaided minority institutes, an exemption that can have several implications for some of the most reputable schools in Calcutta. The exemption means unaided minority schools, if they choose to, can reconsider the mandatory auto-promotion policy till Class VIII and explore ways of disciplining students without inflicting physical pain. Although the central clarification...

India is coming under increasing pressure from the U.S. and the European Union for the strict patentability criteria it applies for medicines. AS was only to be expected, the two landmark decisions made by the Indian patent office in recent times concerning pharmaceutical patent cases have not gone down well with the multinational drug industry. First, there was the rejection in 2006 of the patent application by the Swiss multinational...

-Kafila.org When the Parliament’s budget session re-opens on April 24, the Rajya Sabha will vote on an annulment motion against the IT Rules promulgated in April 2011 that provide for “intermediaries” to remove the online content they are asked to by anyone. The motion has been moved by P Rajeeve, Rajya Sabha member from the Communist Party of India-Marxist. Speaking on the phone from Thrissur, Rajeeve said, “The IT Rules go against...