-The Indian Express   The street vending bill goes a long way in securing the livelihood of the urban poor. The Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Bill, passed by Lok Sabha on September 6, 2013, is a landmark piece of legislation for the urban poor. It is the culmination of the efforts of organisations like the National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI) and the Self...

-The Indian Express The country's demography is witnessing some new trends. While the working age group (15-64 years) has predictably seen an increase in the number of youths, the curtains may have begun falling over the baby boom years that fuelled this bulge in the first place. These have been indicated by the latest 'Single Year Age Data' released by the Census of India from its 2011 census numbers. While the increase...

-The Hindu     The draft policy on the use of forest land is at odds with sound conservation principles and fails to plug holes in current guidelines that work to the advantage of project promoters The Supreme Court in July 2011 while delivering the Lafarge Judgment laid down guidelines on forest clearance procedures. These were to operate till a new regulatory mechanism was put in place. Two years after the judgment, the Ministry...

-Outlook Gandhinagar: A more stringent safety regime will be in place for genetic engineering in agriculture or medical sciences once the National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority (NBRA) Bill is cleared by Parliament, a senior official said here today. "The NBRA bill has been introduced in Parliament and being debated. Once it (bill) is cleared, a more stringent safety regime shall be in place for genetic engineering, be it in the agriculture space or...

-The Telegraph Jorhat: The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India, will implement its CSIR 800 mission at Kaliabor in Nagaon district. The council, which is the largest publicly funded research and development institute in the country, in a change of role has launched CSIR 800 to give a better quality of life to 800 million people of India through scientific and technological intervention. The mission will be launched in 28 clusters of...