-The Hindu By exempting some projects on forest land from gram sabha consent, the government has undermined the rights of local communities and their crucial role in protecting the environment In early February, the Ministry of Environment and Forests partially revoked a crucial order it had issued in August 2009, which made the consent of gram sabhas mandatory for projects seeking diversion of forest lands for non-forest purposes. Now, the ministry has...

-Outlook The Haryana government has decided to do away with the practice of verifying the Below Poverty Line cards for allotment of land or flats earmarked for Economically Weaker Sections in licenced colonies. Announcing this here today, a spokesman of the Haryana Town and Country Planning Department said after the draw of lots, successful candidates would be asked to furnish an affidavit stating that in case his or her name did not...

-The Times of India MUMBAI: India Inc has had to wait for nearly three years for the government to roll out the rules relating to the functioning of electoral trusts. The rules have been recently notified and come into effect from January 31, 2013. The 2009 Budget had introduced provisions relating to electoral trusts in the Income-tax Act. It provided for tax exemption to electoral trusts which distribute contributions to political parties,...

-The Telegraph A baby girl in need of a brain scan has been turned away by every government hospital she has visited in six months because her unemployed single mother doesn't have a BPL card or the money for an MRI. Jhuma Majhi's daughter Brishti, a year and nine months old, was recommended an MRI of the brain last August after falling off a bed and suffering convulsions that have since become...

-Live Mint High court asks state to review law in light of proposed national regulations to govern the sector The Andhra Pradesh high court on Monday upheld a law that led to the near demise of the microfinance industry towards the end of 2010, but asked the state government to review the legislation in the light of proposed national regulations to govern the sector.   News of the review sent the stock of the...