-The Hindu In India, the right to vote is only a statutory right, but the act of voting is a constitutionally protected ‘freedom of expression' under Article 19, as a fundamental right (PUCL, 2013). The Supreme Court recently refused to hear a petition challenging the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj (Second Amendment) Ordinance, 2014 on procedural grounds, sending it back to the High Court. The controversial ordinance introduces a set of educational qualifications of...

-The Hindu Minister writes to counterparts to galvanise support In an effort to galvanise States against the "unilateral and anti-people" stance of the Centre to the public distribution system, Minister of State for Food and Civil Supplies Dinesh Gundu Rao is writing to his counterparts across the country on the "reduced" role of the government in providing minimum support price to farmers in foodgrain procurement and the cut in kerosene quota to...

-The Hindu Business Line Unlike in the 1970s, the moral outrage over glaring differences has given way to an aspiRational ethos For those who have lived in Indian cities long enough, it is difficult to miss the remarkable change in people's tolerance of economic inequality. Back in the 1970s, economic inequality was a major part of the urban discourse. The various dimensions of inequality dominated coffee house discussions, theatre and even popular cinema, contributing...

-Economic and Political Weekly The key to improving the quality of healthcare services in India and reducing costs at the same time can be found by enacting legislation which lays down minimum standards of patient care. In the absence of such standards and the reluctance of health insurance companies to standardise either price or quality, healthcare services continue to be expensive and of doubtful quality. Developing standards of patient care by...

-The Hindu It will need a caring partnership between the Dongria Kondh, civil society organisations and the government to figure out how to navigate the very difficult terrain the tribals face Till last week, I'd never visited Niyamgiri, scene of the iconic fight between the Dongria Kondh tribal group and Vedanta, a powerful multinational corpoRation bent on mining in the area. So why have I titled this ‘revisiting Niyamgiri'? Partly because I've...