-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 Indian Express At a time when the government is struggling to get past objections from its coalition partners to attract investment in certain sectors such as retail, aviation and pensions fund management, a grim internecine ministerial battle has applied the brakes on foreign direct investment flow into one of the more attractive and lucrative sectors — pharmaceuticals. Clearances for over Rs 1,000 crore FDI in this sector, the second largest in...

-The Hindu Victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy have welcomed the Supreme Court’s directive to the Union and Madhya Pradesh governments on providing access to better healthcare to them. “The court’s directive to provide health booklets and smart cards to victims is something that most of us here need,” said Hamida Bi. According to Hamida, neither the Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Centre (BMHRC) nor the State government’s Gas Relief hospital maintained a...

-The Times of India In a move that has angered the health ministry, the Planning Commission has asked for reversal of the long-standing public health policy from the 12th plan onwards ending governments' dominant role in providing health services and transiting to greater privatization of the health sector, something along the lines of the 'managed care' system which is followed in the US and Mexico. The health ministry has taken a tough...

-The Hindu Public Interest Litigation is a good thing when it is used to enforce the rights of the disadvantaged. But it has now been diluted to interfere with the power of the government to take decisions on a range of policy matters Judicial activism is not an easy concept to define. It means different things to different persons. Critics denounce judicial decisions as activist when they do not agree with them....