-Hindustan Times Successive governments have “completely destroyed” the independence of the Election Commission of India (ECI) by ensuring no chief election commissioner (CEC) gets the full six-year term to head the poll body since 1996, a Constitution bench in the Supreme Court lamented on Tuesday, adding that absence of a law for appointment of election commissioners (ECs) has resulted in an “alarming trend”. The five-judge bench further remarked that the silence of...

-Hindustan Times In their plea, former bureaucrats MG Devasahayam, Somasundar Burra, and Aditi Mehta referred to the Registration of Electors Rules that allow the Registration Officer to entertain any objection, hold a summary inquiry and rectify any errors without hearing or notifying the affected party. The Supreme Court has directed the Centre and the Election Commission of India (ECI) to respond in four weeks to public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the rule...

-TheWeek.in Greater damage to planet is unsustainable consumption and inequalities, he says We are now 8 billion strong, just 11 years after the world’s population touched 7 billion. The United Nations designated November 15 as the official day to mark the 8 billion milestone, although it’s hard to identify precisely when we reached it.  What exactly does it mean to be a world of 8 billion for humanity? Experts have varying opinions. Many...

-Newsclick.in World capitalism is entering a new phase in which Third World economies will witness persistent outflow of finance, even if they raise interest rates in tandem with US rates. There are two defining and portentous features of the current world economic situation. One, which is well discussed, is the world-wide increase in interest rates in response to the pervasive inflationary upsurge; it would indubitably generate recession and unemployment, which, notwithstanding all...

-Newsclick.in According to the DMD's figures, 375 people were killed by lightning strikes in the state in 2022. Patna: Climate change-induced extreme weather events like increasing lightning strikes killed more than 1100 people, mostly poor, in Bihar, in the last three years. As per the officials of the state disaster management department (DMD), the increase in deaths in lightning incidents has emerged as a new challenge despite a massive campaign to create...