-Newslaundry The Government of India has removed exemptions for journalistic work from data protection obligations in the fourth iteration of the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2022. If this iteration is passed as law a story containing personal data may result in journalists having to prove to a data protection board that their story was in the public interest, Newslaundry reported. The three previous versions - in 2018, 2019 and 2021...

-Press released by Christian Aid dated 27 December, 2022 * Study identifies the year’s 10 costliest extreme events influenced by the climate crisis - each caused more than $3 billion in damage. * Report also examines 10 other extreme events that caused massive human and environmental damage, mostly in the poorest countries. * The floods that submerged parts of Pakistan in June displaced 7m people and caused more than $30 billion in estimated...

-Scroll.in In 2013, a new law sought to end land grab in India. Telangana showed how easy it was to undermine it, as it took over farmland for a 20,000-acre pharma city. One day in early August 2021, Papi Reddy took a trip to the revenue office of Yacharam mandal, in Telangana’s Ranga Reddy District, He wanted to claim some money that was due to him under Rythu Bandhu, a state-sponsored agricultural...

-The Telegraph The state government has neither made public the total number of dengue cases this year nor the number of deaths it caused Disregard for data, letting the large volunteer force created for Covid disappear following a sharp drop in cases, failure to spread awareness, love for denial.  The wild spread of dengue across West Bengal has bared lapses in the government’s combat strategy and the failure of health officials to learn...

-The Hindu Allow more flexibility at the ground level, says internal study commissioned by the Ministry of Rural Development An internal study commissioned by the Ministry of Rural Development has argued for decentralisation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), allowing for more “flexibility” at the ground level.  The Ministry recently made public the report of the sixth Common Review Mission which surveyed seven States — Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh,...