-The Hindu The Defence Ministry will challenge a judicial commission's findings on ownership of the plot of land where the controversial Adarsh Housing Society here was constructed. The two-member commission has concluded that though the Ministry was in possession of the land, the owner is the Maharashtra government. (The origins of the Adarsh Housing Society scam go back to February 2000. Though the housing complex was meant for serving and retired defence personnel,...

-The Wall Street Journal These days, Indian policymakers are debating how to create a vast new food entitlement program. There is talk of poor households struggling to cope with high food prices and malnourishment among their children. What you don’t hear much about, however, is the most tragic and outrageous consequence of India’s failure to feed its people adequately: starvation deaths. India is a nation that prides itself on having been self-sufficient in...

-The Business Standard Is river interlinking really worthwhile and viable? The Supreme Court’s startling directive to the Centre to set up a “special committee” to expedite river interlinking, which the Court declared was in the “national interest”, has caused the grandiose project to be, once again, closely examined. The idea has been fashionable in fits and starts; it was conceived as far back as the 1970s, and was promoted by the National...

The Swiss-based pharmaceutical giant Novartis is taking the state of India to court in a case that has, after rumbling about in the Lower Courts for six years, wound up as a very public litmus test of the legal framework sustaining India’s generic drugs revolution.  With the case due before the Supreme Court on 28 March, the fate of millions who depend on affordable Indian medicines may soon hang in the...

Women in Maharashtra have another reason to celebrate as International Women's Day approaches.  It is now perfectly legal for a woman to retain her maiden name after marriage. The Bombay high court recently amended a crucial rule under the Family Courts Act to prevent a woman from being compelled to file any marriage-related proceedings only in her husband's surname, thus offering relief to many seeking a divorce. It will also help...