-The Times of India   The government's decision to recast policy guidelines for TV channels, which in effect has held out the threat of canceling the licence of news channels if they are guilty of five "violations", has created an outrage among broadcasters and civil rights activists who have described it as a knee jerk reaction and demanded an immediate withdrawal of the order. Broadcasters feel that blocking a news channel can't depend...

The life and properties of tribals are under serious threat from existing model of developmental in the country and, therefore, they need to jointly fight against the forces that exploit the natural resources for economic growth of the corporate houses. This was the gist of the deliberations among 250 delegates representing tribal groups from NINe states such as Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and West...

India is finally ready with a comprehensive Bill that will protect children from sexual abuse. But the Bill, says author-activist Pinki Virani, has a major flaw regarding sexual consent that needs to be immediately addressed and the stakeholders consulted before it becomes law. With a certain Standing Committee so much in the news, let us look at what is happeNINg with another Standing Committee looking into a Bill to protect children...

Indian ministers' foreign travel plans have been grounded by the government's austerity drive. Till July 1 this year, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had turned down as many as 24 foreign trip applications from members of his ministerial council, compared to 10 such refusals in the whole of 2010. The change is stark considering that the PM had earlier been obliging almost all his colleagues. In 2009, after the UPA returned to...

The beneficiaries of the land reforms in West Bengal get pushed out of their land under the new regime. MOGHAI MUNDA is dead. No one is there to mourn him but his distraught parents and his young wife who seems to have lost her power of speech. But it is a significant death, even if it is ignored by the ubiquitous media and, therefore, by the world at large. Like the...