-IndianSpend.com Recent changes to environment clearance rules allow polluting industries to expand their operations and change their product mix without full central scrutiny. This may weaken the already poor compliance with environmental regulations and could even lead to industrial accidents like the 2020 Visakhapatnam gas leak, experts say. New Delhi: Recent changes in the environment clearance process for India's most polluting industries will allow them to expand their capacity and change their...

-The Hindu Making it compulsory to open a bank account in Delhi among others acts an impediment, they say The Amendments to the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) enacted last year that among others made it compulsory for NGOs to open a bank account in Delhi has crippled the work of many organisations who are unable to receive foreign funds. Registered NGOs can receive foreign contribution for five purposes — social, educational, religious,...

-Newsclick.in The deeper rot in agriculture can be overcome through more far-reaching reforms, starting from an overhaul of pre-capitalist land relations and relations of production that continue to shackle productivity and are at the root of aggravating poverty, unemployment and inequality in rural India. It has been more than five months since farmers from different parts of the country began protesting in Delhi. They have been unflinching when it comes to their...

-Outlook India Justice Madan B Lokur cited a recent incident in UP involving a man who tweeted for help-seeking oxygen for his 88-year-old grandfather and the Amethi police booked him. Former Supreme Court judge Justice Madan B Lokur on Friday said that sedition cases against people seeking help during the pandemic, and blocking of news and social media channels reporting failure of authorities, is curtailment of freedom of speech and expression. Speaking at...

-The Hindu The Matuas became a significant political entity after the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2003, came into being On a sultry April day, Thakurnagar, the holy site of Matuas in the Bongaon sub-division of West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district bordering Bangladesh, sizzles with banners of rival political parties asking for votes. As if indifferent to the ongoing political tension and the pandemic threat, a boisterous religious rally makes its way through...