I got a call around midnight in the Delhi summer. It was Lingaram, the young Muria adivasi from Sameli village in Dantewada, then studying in Noida’s International Media Institute of India. Linga’s misfortunes never seem to end: first he was accused of helping the Maoists, then tortured in the police station toilet, forced to be a special police officer, then released thanks to a habeas corpus petition. In a few months,...

A report by an expert group on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) has suggested wide-ranging institutional reforms to regulate the public and the private sectors to ensure assured quality and rational pricing of healthcare services. The group, set up by the Planning Commission to develop a blue print and investment plan to meet the human resource requirements to achieve health for all by 2020, focuses on rational use of drugs. The extensive...

-The Hindu   The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has set up an “Advisory Group on the Media and Human Rights,” consisting of 12 senior journalists, including Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu N. Ram. Formed as part of the media and outreach policy of the NHRC, the group will have regular interaction with the media and seek their enhanced and active role in the promotion and protection of Human Rights. Its terms of reference include:...

Despite a tortuous route marked by twists and turns, allegations and counter-allegations, amid public protests and fears of further violence in neighbouring Haryana, the Rohini sessions court which pronounced the judgment in the Mirchpur caste violence incident convicting 15 people and acquitting 82 others has set a record of sorts by completing the trial in just over nine months. On April 21, 2010, 70-year-old Tara Chand and his physically-challenged daughter, Suman,...

On one day — one minute — in the next month, the world's seven billionth human resident will be born. The United Nations is marking the occasion on the last day of October with what it describes it as an “opportunity” to promote “seven billion actions” for environmental sustainability and women's education, estimating that the world's population will top out at nine or 10 billion mid-century before declining as economic...