-The Telegraph New Delhi: The law commission has opposed the concept of compulsory voting, saying it is "highly undesirable", and recommended that either the President or a governor - and not the Speaker - should decide whether to disqualify a lawmaker who switches sides. The recommendations are among a series of electoral reforms that the commission, headed by retired Delhi High Court Chief Justice A.P. Shah, has suggested in a report it...

-Business Standard NC Saxena, former member of the Planning Commission and National Advisory Council has been critical of the land acquisition, rehabilitation and resettlement Act. He tells Kanika Datta why things are unlikely to improve with the amendments recently passed by the Lok Sabha. Edited excerpts: * You were critical of the LARR Act but less so of the ordinance. Why? Let me clarify. The 2013 Act was anti-farmer and anti-industry. The ordinance...

-The Indian Express Sending a terse message to the government against "muzzling" voices of dissent, the Delhi High Court directed authorities Thursday to expunge the "offload" remark from the passport of Greenpeace activist Priya Pillai, remove her name from a database and allow her to travel abroad. Stating that the right of free speech and expression "necessarily includes the right to criticise and dissent", Justice Rajiv Shakdher, in a 39-page order, said:...

The India Country Report 2015 on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) comes at a time when the Union Budget 2015-16 allegedly cut expenditure on several social sector schemes and programmes. This year's MDG country report says that India will fail to achieve two important targets pertaining to reducing hunger and maternal mortality by 2015, among others. Released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), the report says that India is...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Thursday quashed the lookout circular issued against Greenpeace activist Priya Pillai. The High Court also directed the authorities to expunge endorsements made while offloading Pillai from a flight to London by immigration officials on January 11. The court had reserved the order in the case on February 19. Pillai had objected to the government's move of offloading her when she was on her...