-IANS Civil society activists as well as economists Monday decried the "budget cuts" being made by the government for the rural employment guarantee act. The government seems to have decided to ignore its legal responsibility and is using budget cuts to rapidly dilute and undermine the rural employment act, the activists said at a press conference here. Economist Jayati Ghosh said that MGNREGA funding has not been keeping to its demand based requirements...

-Press Release of People's Action for Employment Guarantee New Delhi: Monday marks the 9th anniversary of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. The Act is unique to India and is known across the world as not only one of the most innovative social security measures but also an entitlement guaranteed by law passed unanimously by both houses of parliament. Since its inception, 1 in 3 households in rural India have worked...

-The Hindu Washington: A top global human rights group has criticised the Indian government for its treatment of minorities, lack of protection for women's and children's rights, restrictions on free speech and insufficient support extended for human rights via New Delhi's foreign policy engagements. In its 25th annual World Report on human rights, New York-headquartered Human Rights Watch noted that there was a "spike" in incidents of violence against religious minorities in...

-The Hindustan Times The Centre may act against some of the 188 NGOs red-flagged by the Intelligence Bureau for alleged misuse of foreign funds, suspected extremist links and proselytization. These non-government organisations were reported by the internal spy agency and a list sent to the home ministry, documents accessed by HT have revealed. The country's top tax body the central board of direct taxes (CBDT) and enforcement directorate (ED), which tracks foreign funds...

-The Hindustan Times New Delhi: For a long time, 12- year-old Rohan, an HIV positive child, was in pain but could not comprehend why. For months, he passed blood with his stools. Finally, a counsellor drew a sketch after Rohan pointed to his mouth and back and the truth emerged: He was regularly being forced into oral and anal sex. Rohan then drew a picture of Ashish, one of his co-inmates at...