-The Hindu The new Bill should pitch for free care to mental health patients in public hospitals. Persons with mental illness have long been subjected to cruelty, neglect, ridicule and stigma. In the last half-century, medical science has made significant strides in finding some cures and palliatives for afflictions of the mind – of emotion, mood, thinking and behaviour. Parallel to this is the evolution in our ethical frameworks: of human rights,...

-Outlook Expanding the ambit of its 1997 Vishaka verdict, the Supreme Court today directed all regulatory bodies like BCI and MCI, which regulate different professions, to set up a committee to deal with all cases of sexual harassment at the workplace. A three-judge bench headed by Justice R M Lodha directed regulating bodies and all the Institutions affiliated to them to implement the guidelines framed in the Vishaka case within two months. The...

-The Hindu India Against Corruption has broken the unwritten code that politicians will not target each other’s kin, and in doing so has taken over the role the traditional Opposition and media should be playing The civil society formation, India Against Corruption, is a beast most find stunning and enthralling, yet few are able to define its precise nature. The confusion over IAC’s personality arises from the many simultaneous roles its activists...

-The Indian Express After QS and Times Higher Education published their rankings of universities across the world, higher education has become the subject of fierce debate in India. The highest ranking Institutions from India are the IITs, but even these do not figure in the top 200. The general refrain — why does no Indian university find a place among the top global universities? Unfortunately, given our present policies on higher education...

-DNA Amid the controversy over allocation of resources for biodiversity by developed and developing nations, India has decided to allocate $50 million (about Rs 275 crore) towards biodiversity conservation. In addition, the country would also allocate similar amount to help other developing nations conserve biodiversity. Addressing the representatives of about 190 countries at the opening plenary of the high-level segment of the 11th Conference of Parties (COP-11) on the Convention on Biological...