-The Times of India AHMEDABAD: When Mahatma Gandhi promoted the use of khadi for cottage industries of India, little did he IMAgine that workers of this industry would have to openly rebel for being meted out step-motherly treatment by the government. The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has not paid the 20% rebate on the production value of khadi to several khadi institutions for two years in a row, claim...

-The Hindu     Questioning a technology, especially of the kind that has serious unknowns and lacks clear social benefits, is not an attack on science Jairam Ramesh, former Environment Minister for India, made the brave decision in 2010 to tell his then apex regulator of genetically modified organisms (GEAC) that it had failed to properly use available science to determine the safety - to human health and the environment - of Bt brinjal,...

-The Indian Express Holding back the RTI amendment is not the best way to address public concerns about party finance. There has been great civil society uproar over the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2013, which aims to extricate political parties from mandatory public disclosures, and nullify the Central Information Commission's recent order. While passing the amendment would have been all too easy, given the broad political consensus, a last-minute turnaround in...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: The environment ministry has slapped a Rs 200-crore fine on the Adani Group's Mundra Port and Special Economic Zone for damaging mangroves, creeks and the local environment at the project site. The company's shares fell 6.4%. The penalty was recommended by a committee headed by Sunita Narain, director general of Centre for Science and Environment, set up by the environment ministry. The report was submitted to environment...

One landmark law, the Right to Information Act, has helped over a thousand adivasis in north Maharashtra in getting closer to their rights under another landmark law – the Forest Rights Act. The latter was legislated in 2006 giving forest dwelling and other adivasi communities individual and community rights to lands they had traditionally cultivated and occupied. But communities in rural India have faced an uphill battle in getting the...