-The Hindu The new Seeds Bill is tilted against farmers’ interests and loaded in favour of seed companies. After passing through at least two versions, Seeds Bill 2019 is now under Parliament’s consideration. The earlier versions of the Bill, in 2004 and 2010, had generated heated debates. The present version promises to be no different. In 1994, India signed the agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). In 2002, India also...

-Press release by National Alliance of Peoples' Movements  dated 28 November, 2019 In yet another of its egregious legislative misadventures, the BJP Government with support from some other parties, passed the regressive 'Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights)' Bill, in the Rajya Sabha yesterday, despite wide-spread opposition by members of the transgender, intersex and gender non-confirming communities, seeking referral of the Bill to a Select Committee. We have all been witness to...

-The Indian Express PS Krishnan was a rare bureaucrat who sought to reform government for marginalised PS Krishnan, who left us on November 10, was an extraordinary combination of the bureaucrat-reformer-activist. His was a life driven by single-minded devotion to the cause of the deprived and exploited. From his student days in his native Kerala and later, as a member of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in the Andhra Pradesh cadre —...

-Down to Earth State government misused Article 371 (G) to revoke FRA in Mizoram, critics allege The Mizoram government passed a resolution revoking the implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (FRA) in its assembly session on November 19, 2019. Under Article 371 (G) of the Constitution, Mizoram has a special provision which makes it mandatory for all Legislations of Parliament pertaining to land...

-The Indian Express In Guwahati, students under the banner of the All Assam Students’ Union marched from its office to the Governor’s residence and submitted a memorandum addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighting why they oppose the Bill. Guwahati: The Northeast saw several protests on Monday against the citizenship amendment Bill, scheduled to be tabled in Parliament this session, with students’ bodies staging sit-in demonstrations and marches against the proposed...