-The Hindu New Delhi travelled to tribal heartland. The expert group offers hope; an opportunity to ensure that the tribals have a say in policies that are framed for them. Earlier this month, a motley group of 50 academicians, government officials and Activists gathered at Shodhgram village in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district. This is an area known for malaria, malnutrition and Maoists, not necessarily in that order. Everyone left technology behind (mobile phones and...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: A non-government organisation has come up with a raft of ideas to reform the judicial system, saying unless things were speeded up it would take at least a hundred years to dispose of the current backlog of three crore cases. The suggestions from the Children's Rights Initiative for Shared Parenting (CRISP) came in representations the NGO made to Chief Justice of India (CJI) H.L. Dattu and Union law...

-Hindustan Times Ranchi: The Jharkhand government’s hastily rolled out National Food Security Act (NFSA) suffered a major blow after several incidents of multiple fake ration cards being issued to the same person surfaced, creating a dilemma for dealers under the Public Distribution System (PDS). Jharkhand rolled out the ambitious NFSA in haste from October 1 this year, entitling more than 2.33 crore people of the state’s total 3.29 crore population to 5...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: In a move that comes as a huge relief to patients of chronic Hepatitis C, the apex committee of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) has granted a waiver of local trials for crucial new direct-acting antiviral drugs treating the disease. The waiver for sofosbuvir and ledipasvir co-formulation and for daclatasvir is expected to bring the generic version of these drugs, which cost a fraction...

-Down to Earth The villages are now officially recognised and have been renamed as Tehri Bhagirathi Nagar, Ghonti Village and Chhaam After nearly four decades of struggle by displaced residents, the Uttarakhand government has finally recognised three villages as revenue villages, displaced due to the construction of the Tehri Dam. With this recognition, the villages will now have land rights, basic amenities like electricity, water, health services, educational institutions, banks, post offices...