-Press release by National Alliance of Peoples' Movements  dated 28 November, 2019 In yet another of its egregious legislative misadventures, the BJP Government with support from some other parties, passed the regressive 'Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights)' Bill, in the Rajya Sabha yesterday, despite wide-spread opposition by members of the transgender, intersex and gender non-confirming communities, seeking referral of the Bill to a Select Committee. We have all been witness to...

-Down to Earth Minister Prakash Javadekar said draft created misconception among people The Union government was withdrawing the officers’ draft of the Indian Forest Act (IFA), 1927 amendment, Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) Prakash Javadekar told reporters on November 15, 2019. Inspector General of Forests (Forest Policy) Noyal Thomas had sent a letter to all states on March 7 this year, seeking their comments on the first draft of the...

-Scroll.in A poorly-functioning justice system costs India 9% of its GDP each year, according to one estimate. A new report paints a grim picture of the state of India’s justice system. Called the India Justice Report 2019, it ranks states by their performance in four aspects: police, the state judiciary, prisons and legal aid. The report is an initiative of Tata Trusts, a philanthropic organisation, undertaken in partnership with several civil society organisations...

-Business Today RCEP trade deal: The group said that the Indian govt should not agree to the RCEP even in future as it will be a 'bad deal for democracy, for farmers, workers, will subvert our sovereign laws and compromise India's industrialisation potential'. Forum for Trade Justice, a pan-civil society network has welcomed the failure of the 16 negotiating countries to reach a consensus over the conclusion of the world's largest free...

-The Hindu Business Line Clause for compensation panel, regulation of seed prices scrapped New Delhi: The revised draft Seeds Bill 2019, which the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare placed in the public domain recently for suggestions and comments, seems to be a watered down version of a draft prepared about nine years ago by the then United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. Among other things, the new draft has done away with the...