With the threat of a failed monsoon and an impending drought, the need for public works and for greater numbers of workers will arise in many states, says National Advisory Council member Aruna Roy Despite all its seminal achievements, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Gurantee Act is at the receiving end of the most controversial critiques any government programme has received so far. We could perhaps invert this to say...

-The Hindustan Times Annoyed with the conduct of the four member advocates' committee, constituted by the Punjab and Haryana high court to interview 101 inmates of Rohtak shelter home abuse, for being at "logger heads" with each other, "lack of co-ordination" and "media interaction", the high court on Wednesday came down heavily on the committee. The vacation bench comprising justice LN Mittal and justice Gurmeet Singh Sandhawalia said, "If this is the...

In a fresh controversy over how the Mamata Banerjee regime takes criticism, the West Bengal Higher Education Department has sought an explanation from two government college teachers whether they took permission to take part in television discussions, in which they allegedly expressed “anti-government views.”  Debasish Sarkar, associate professor of Economics at Jhargram Raj College, and Shampa Sen, head of the Department of Bengali at Hooghly Mohsin College, have been asked to...

-Kafila.org With a comfortable gap of time after the revelations of paid news, private treaties and the Radia tapes, the media is once again on the offensive to guard its independence. The trigger this time is a private member’s bill, the Print and Electronic Media Standards and Regulation Bill, 2012. The proposed legislation has been widely and energetically panned by the industry, with the Congress subsequently distancing itself from the Bill....

The proposal made by a Supreme Court Bench to have guidelines for legal reporting is seen as a serious threat to the freedom of the media. Paradoxes are not new to India. But the current challenges to the freedom of expression and the freedom of the media are sure to confound a future historian looking for explanations. The country is fortunate to have the best of historical circumstances that are conducive...