-The Times of India Groundwater, a precious natural resource, is for all practical purposes a private property in India. Anyone can bore and extract water from the land he owns with few rules to restrict over-exploitation. But all this could soon change. Plans are afoot to alter laws and Regulations to make groundwater a common property resource to ensure better Regulation by government as a public trustee with the involvement of communities...

-The Indian Express The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Allahabad High Court registry to reply to a PIL challenging its RTI rules as unconstitutional. A bench of Justices A K Patnaik and Swatanter Kumar asked the registry to respond on a plea by NGO, Common Cause, which has sought the quashing of Rules 3 to 5, 20 and 25 to 27 of the Allahabad High Court (Right to Information) Rules, 2006. The...

-The Indian Express Government must bring the assisted reproductive technologies bill to Parliament. More stringent Regulation could have saved lives Sushma Pandey, just 17 years old, reportedly died due to procedures related to egg harvesting conducted on her by a fertility clinic in Mumbai. Two years after her death, the Bombay high court did well to criticise the police for not prosecuting the hospital for its flagrant violation of the age requirement...

-Live Mint The Maharashtra Housing Regulation and Development Bill passed by the state assembly on Monday paves the way for the establishment of the country’s first regulator for the housing sector. The Bill, which now goes to the state legislative council, aims to bring about transparency in the real estate sector and empower homebuyers. It also attempts to demystify some of the popular and often misused terms used in the sector, such...

-The Hindu Growing demand for male children, ‘same-caste’ surrogates   Unregulated fertility clinics indulge in medical malpractices, including physical and economical exploitation of women, a study has shown. Shockingly, preference for male children and demand for ‘same caste’ surrogates are prevalent in India. “Some couples, say about 5 per cent, who come to my clinic demand surrogates from their own caste,” says Nayna Patel, of the Akanksha Fertility Clinic in Anand, Gujarat that has come...