To replace ‘Dalit’ with ‘SC’, as the Thorat panel recommends, is to be inaccurate A commission led by S.K. Thorat, and charged with reviewing NCERT political science textbooks in the wake of the cartoon controversy, has singled out a specific word in the text for removal. All instances of the word “Dalit”, it is recommended, should be replaced with “Scheduled Caste” (SC). The blogosphere is rife with speculation on the motivation...

-The Hindu The debate over the cartoons used in NCERT textbooks as aids to learning have thrown up a range of issues. The discussion has crystallised around a set of oppositions: motivated political correctness of our elected representatives vs. the necessity of preemptory parliamentary intervention on educational material appropriate for schools; institutional autonomy vs. political responsibility of a state presiding over a diverse and fraught society; the hubris of ‘experts’ vs....

-The Times of India PANAJI: In a recent significant judgment, the Supreme Court has held that the state's panchayats have the right to challenge government authority decisions before the high court, as the grassroots-level bodies represent the will of the people. The apex court verdict thus overruled the high court of Bombay at Goa's judgment which had declined relief to the Calangute panchayat. The panchayat had questioned before the high court an order...

-PTI Court agrees to examine the whole issue at length   The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to examine the Centre’s plea that sex workers should not be allowed to operate in the country under the cloak of working “with dignity” as suggested by a panel, since that would be contrary to the statute prohibiting the world’s oldest trade. Appearing for the Centre, Additional Solicitor-General P. P. Malhotra told a Special Bench of Justice...

-The Hindu Journalists need to adopt a set of integrity measures in order to police the boundaries between the market and political power   Gina Rinehart, Australia’s richest person and the world’s wealthiest woman, is seeking three board seats following her purchase of 18.7 per cent of Fairfax which owns most papers in Australia not controlled by Rupert Murdoch’s News Ltd. There has already been considerable upheaval in two of the Fairfax papers...