A bill drafted by the National Advisory Council to check communal violence seeks to impose greater accountability on public officials in tackling violence or discrimination against vulnerable groups. The council, headed by Sonia Gandhi, today took up the Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations) Bill, prepared by one of its working groups. The council has decided to put the draft bill in the public domain to invite...

The Communist Party of India (CPI) on Wednesday demanded a nationwide ban on pesticide endosulfan and the setting up of a committee to asses the damage caused by it and pay compensation to the victims. “It is absolutely unacceptable that despite several scientific studies — undertaken both by Central and State agencies — finding that endosulfan is a deadly chemical, it is still sold and used in our country,” the party...

Free speech advocates and Internet users are protesting new Indian regulations restricting Web content that, among other things, can be considered "disparaging," "harassing," "blasphemous" or "hateful." The new rules, quietly issued by the country's Department of Information Technology earlier this month and only now attracting attention, allow officials and private citizens to demand that Internet sites and service providers remove content they consider objectionable on the basis of a long list...

The activism of civil society against corruption has caught the imagination of many Indians. Arguments put forward by representatives of the civil society organisations (CSOs) can be summarised as follows: 'All - at least most - politicians, ministers, bureaucrats are corrupt. Voters are incapable of deciding what is good for them. The police, Central Bureau of Investigation and the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, and all other agencies of the State...

Wheat procurement in Punjab has reached 56.22 lakh metric tonnes (MT) so far in the ongoing crop year, but this is still 39 per cent lower than the volume lifted in the corresponding period of previous year. Government procurement agencies and private millers have procured 56.22 lakh MT of wheat so far, whereas 91.60 lakh MT of crop was procured last year. Wheat harvesting got delayed in Punjab because of extended cold...