The contrast between the disasters, more than a quarter-century and half a world apart, could not be starker. In 1984, a leak of toxic gas at an American company’s Indian subsidiary killed thousands, injured tens of thousands more and left a major city with a toxic waste dump at its heart. The company walked away after paying a $470 million settlement. The company’s American chief executive, arrested while in India, skipped...

They express shock at reports that it has been finalised Discussions still on to decide the final shape of Bill Recommendations made to NAC “non-negotiable” Even as the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) is holding consultations with a cross-section of civil society groups to evolve consensus on the Communal Violence (Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation of Victims) Bill, so that their suggestions can be incorporated in the final text, before it is brought...

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Centre and eight States for a direction to explain the steps taken to prevent honour killings at the national level and in the respective States. A vacation Bench comprising Justice R.M. Lodha and Justice A.K. Patnaik, after hearing counsel Ravi Kant, issued notice to Haryana, Punjab, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh asking them to respond to the...

Even as rural Haryana remains in the stranglehold of the defiant caste panchayats, honour killings continue in their most horrible form: On Sunday, the family members of a girl allegedly killed her and her teenaged lover and hanged them as exhibits in their house for the village to see their "fate." According to police, Monika (18) and her lover Rinku (19), both from Jat families, were brutally killed for honour...

The draft law on sexual harassment could make the workplace safer for women. Locker room talk, personal remarks and unsolicited advances will all get the official stamp of disapproval if the draft bill on sexual harassment is passed by the Cabinet next month. This comes 13 years after the Supreme Court framed the Vishaka guidelines on sexual harassment at the workplace. The draft bill based on these guidelines has been around...