-PTI New Delhi: Expressing their resistance against GM-mustard, thousands of people joined ‘Sarson Satyagraha’ in 18 states on Gandhi Jayanti today, asserting the hybrid variety is “unwanted, unneeded and unsafe“. The ‘Satyagraha’ took various forms ranging from Gram Sabha resolutions to remain GM-free to take part in a mustard festival, organised by the Delhi government to gather public feedback on GM mustard. Eminent citizens, scientists, film personalities, farmer leaders, artists, and Activists took...

-The Hindu Recent years have been a watershed in the public health programme in India. We have managed to eradicate diseases such as polio and tetanus, reduced maternal and child mortality rates significantly, halved the prevalence of tuberculosis and malaria and increased the life expectancy for both adults and children. These achievements reflect the unflinching efforts of the Indian government and all stakeholders in the past two decades to ensure health...

-The Indian Express Preventive detention is being routinised as an instrument of state repression The recent preventive detention (PD) of Khurram Parvez, a Kashmiri human rights Activist, and Jignesh Mewani, a Dalit leader from Gujarat, has turned the spotlight on the provision of PD and the purposes it is being made to serve. National Crime Records Bureau data released in September 2015 indicate that over 3,200 people were being held in administrative...

-DNA Say pictures of PM and other leaders on homepage shows officials' 'indebtedness and gratitude' to political bosses The new Central Information Commission (CIC) website has come under the criticism of the Right to Information (RTI) applicants and Activists. Calling it a bowing down of sorts, Activists said it was a way of showing "indebtedness" to political masters. The homepage of new website, which has been launched just days ahead of the...

Although the number of cases of sedition has come down between 2014 and 2015, more arrests were made in 2015 vis-à-vis 2014, according to a new report from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). The NCRB report entitled Crime in India 2015 Statistics reveals that the total number of sedition related cases that occurred in the country was 30 in 2015. The same document shows that the total number of persons...