-The Hindu The Supreme Court has stayed a Full Bench judgment of the Kerala High Court holding that cooperative societies in the State would come within the ambit of ‘public authority’ under the Right to Information Act. A Bench of Justices K.S. Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra stayed the judgment for three months after hearing senior counsel V. Giri and counsel Vipin Nair, appearing for Thalappalam Service Cooperative Bank challenging the judgment dated...

-The United Nations The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said today that global rice paddy production for 2012 is expected to be lower than originally expected, owing to below-normal monsoon rains in India. The July 2012 issue of the Rice Market Monitor, released by FAO today, says that production is expected to total 724.5 million tonnes – a 7.8 million tonne downward revision compared to the original forecast in April....

The Guwahati molestation incident throws light on the violence women face overtly and covertly in India, at home and outside. The shocking incident of the beating and molestation of a young woman by a mob in Guwahati in Assam on July 9 has exposed the ugly underbelly of modern, globalised India, where women face violence, covertly and overtly, at home and outside. The incident has also exposed the lackadaisical manner in...

-The Indian Express When Team Anna members Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia announced Friday the decision of their anti-corruption movement to launch a political party, they said it was based on the “strength of the people of India”. But the decision seemed to have shaken the the strength of their own organisation, with prominent members as well as ordinary supporters openly criticising the switch and even distancing themselves from it. Sri Sri...

-IANS Eighteen of the 82 parliamentarians given licences of prohibited bore guns between 2001- 12 had criminal charges pending against them, a study has said, hinting at criminalisation of Indian politics. The 18 MPs were facing cases like murder, attempt to murder and kidnapping at the time the weapons were sold to them. "The study shows the extent to which our politics has become criminalised...we need to take immediate steps to root out...