-The Times of India NEW DELHI: It is no big deal that for a Parliament used to discussing and dissecting scams worth thousands of crores, the dissipating odour of onions hasn't reached its hallowed portals. For more than a week of the Monsoon session little work has been done, and even less time has been spent discussing spiraling prices of essential commodities. After all, it has only touched Rs 100/kg and not yet...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The government will amend the Representation of the People Act (RPA) to set aside the Supreme Court's ruling on disqualifying legislators immediately on conviction for an offence attracting a jail term of more than two years. The government feels changing the law through a constitutional amendment is preferable to seeking a review in the apex court as the prospects of the latter course of action are...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Taking on the rampant money and muscle power in Politics, a new political party, Nav Bharat Democratic Party, was launched on Thursday, promising clean candidates and transparent democracy. The party helmed by a motley group of professions, including a retired naval officer, entrepreneurs, lawyers and others, promised to provide an accountable government. The party will field candidates, including working professionals, entrepreneurs and veteran politicians, weaned away...

-The Hindu     While denying voting rights to undertrials contradicts the principle that a person is innocent until proved guilty, disenfranchising convicts will aggravate their alienation from society The Supreme Court's decision last month in Chief Election Commissioner v. Jan Chaukidar has attracted significant attention for its perceived potential to address the criminalisation of Politics. Justices A.K Patnaik and S.J. Mukhopadhaya ruled that since one of the conditions to be a candidate under...

-The Times of India Jayati Ghosh is an economist specializing in globalisation and employment in developing nations. Speaking with Ashish Yechury, Ghosh discussed the controversy over defining poverty, ideas about economic growth - and a season of 'Marie Antoinette' economists: * What's your view of India's poverty line? It's very good the media's realised our poverty line is ridiculously low. These lines were developed 40 years ago in a very different social,...