-Frontline Two draft Bills on the Tribal Sub-Plan and the Scheduled Caste Sub-Plan raise hopes of granting these decades-old schemes statutory status and ensuring allocation of funds in the Central and State budgets for their implementation. IN a significant legislative move, the Union government's Ministry of Tribal Affairs released a draft Bill for the implementation of the long-neglected Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP), a special programme mandated by the Planning Commission to benefit the...

-The Hindu Apprehensions of various sections must be allayed: M.S. Swaminathan UDHAGAMANDALAM (Tamil Nadu): In matters relating to genetically modified (GM) food crops, the government should ‘hasten cautiously,' said eminent agricultural scientist M.S. Swaminathan. He was speaking on the sidelines of a visit to the Wheat Breeding Research Station of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) at Wellington, near here, on Tuesday. When asked about differences within the government over conducting field trials of GM...

-Down to Earth State government yet to revoke ban on non-motorised transport despite repeated protests, calls from civil society and advisory from Union Ministry of Urban Development "I have been fined three times this month while delivering milk," says an angry Omkar Mandal. For over two decades now, Mandal has been cycling about 10 km every day to pick up and deliver milk. "Each time I have to pay Rs 120. How...

-The Business Standard Policymaking in India is more often than not credited for its high nuisance value, rather than for positively aiding growth. Whether oil & gas, power, mining or any other core sector of the economy, government policy has frequently hampered rather than assisted the positive development of these industries. There is however one segment of the renewable energy space - solar power, that's vastly benefitted from concerted government action...

-The Hindu     To be able to deliver appropriate legal services to the rural and tribal communities, we need an alternative delivery system with a different model of legal service providers Delivery of legal services to the rich and the corporate class is organised not through individual lawyers but through a series of networked law firms. These firms employ hundreds of lawyers and domain experts all over the country to provide highly specialised...