Fourteen national and international non-government organisations and academic centres have called for reforms in what they say are excessively-broad exemptions granted to the government on national security issues by the Right to Information (RTI) Act. To guide decision-making on information requests relating to national security, the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), along with other groups, is in the process of formulating “guidelines” to bring about consensus on the extent of restrictions...

Schools in the city will have to admit 25% students from the economically weak section before June 10 and start advertising the available seats by May 31. Under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009, the state government has issued notifications to all schools, except minority unaided ones, to start advertising the 25% seats in their schools by May 31. The Supreme Court order in its April 12...

Dow Chemicals, contesting the Union government's Rs 7,844 crore demand for additional compensation to 1984 Bhopal gas leak disaster victims, is set to face additional claims from the Centre for incineration of the toxic waste lying at Union Carbide's plant for the last 28 years. The Centre on Monday informed the Supreme Court that it would bear the cost of the pilot project for safe disposal of 346 tonnes of toxic...

-NDTV Nagpur: The entire Vidarbha region in Maharashtra is facing a drought-like situation following huge water scarcity due to drying of lakes and wells in most of the villages due to intense heat wave conditions. Approximately 4,300 villages are facing the grim situation as village wells and water bodies are drying up fast, prompting the administration to supply water through tankers for human consumption and livestock. According to sources, around 331 villages in...

Maintaining his pro-Adivasi approach, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Monday said the time had come to make changes in the country's economic policy keeping the interests of the Adivasi population in view. “Though the country has achieved enough economic progress, the benefit of our economic policy has not reached the Adivasi people so far. The injustice done to the Adivasis needs to be corrected with concern and care,” Mr....