-The Hindu The US Trafficking in Persons report for 2015 said official complicity remained a “serious concern” Unveiling a closely-watched annual anti-trafficking report this week the U.S. State Department retained India’s classification as a “Tier II” nation for human trafficking concerns, which implied that the U.S. viewed India as a country that whose government did not fully comply with its Trafficking Victims’ Protection Act’s (TVPA) minimum standards, but was making significant efforts...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: "Touching a Dalit or tribal woman in a sexual manner without consent" or "acts/gestures of sexual nature" against them would invite the stringent provisions of the Prevention of SC/ST Atrocities Act (POA). The Centre has decided to amend the POA along the lines of UPA's ordinance, with the objective of strengthening the special law by including more crimes under the head of "atrocities". In an important addition,...

-Hindustan Times While searching for updates on the United Nations Third International Conference on Financing for Development, which took place in Addis Ababa recently, I came across an interesting piece of news: Music maestro AR Rahman and Bollywood superstar Hrithik Roshan would join a seven-day global campaign to popularise the sustainable development goals (SDGs), which are a new set of universal goals, targets and indicators that 193 UN member states will...

-The Hindu Business Line New Delhi: Even as a Joint Parliamentary Panel is looking into the controversial Land Bill, which seeks to replace the Land Act of 2013, the National Democratic Alliance is considering diluting the controversial consent clause and offering more clarity on compensation to farmers to make the piece of legislation more acceptable. A highly-placed source told BusinessLine that “an important element of the strategy is to get the report...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Various ministries — led by health, agriculture and human resource development — have released close to Rs 44,000 crore over the past few years without getting utilization certificates or accounts of grants given to statutory bodies and organizations, resulting in spending without any evidence of gains flowing to the beneficiaries. The concern has been flagged by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in a new report...