-The Hindu The Aadhaar Bill has been passed with no public consultation about the privacy safeguards necessary for such a database and no provision for public or independent oversight. The rights to liberty and freedom of expression cannot survive if the right to privacy is compromised. The Central government has forced the Aadhaar Bill through Parliament in a week. Aadhaar has had an invasive and controversial presence well before the government’s attempt...

-The Tribune New Delhi: Top editors today engaged in an eclectic dialogue on the ills of Indian journalism after Vice-President Hamid Ansari listed their challenges in the times of “24X7 agitation of television news channels”. Addressing a seminar on the “Role of Editors in Today’s Media”, a Rajya Sabha TV initiative, Ansari lamented the decline of media ethics, recalling recent instances of some TV channels airing concocted content at the peak of...

-Business Standard - Capital Market Unseasonal rains accompanied by hailstorms are creating havoc for Indian farmers year after year even as the country faces shortfall in wheat production by around 13 million tonnes from the initial estimates of 93.8 million tonnes in the current crop year and the development may force the government to consider imports of the staple grain as well, according to an ASSOCHAM paper. "The shortfall in production...

-Kafila.org The last few months have seen an unusual public engagement around questions of secularism, freedom of speech, sedition and the like, with furious debates everywhere from our campuses, streets and TV studios to the floor of Parliament. The budget session has been enlivened by scenes of high drama, with the leading lights of the Treasury benches bringing colour, sound and fury to their tutorials on patriotism and nationalism. While these high-decibel...

-The Hindu The steps taken towards social democracy are being reversed. What we have now are social insurance policies from above. This subverts the entire project of giving voice to the voiceless. India has paid a heavy price for failing to institutionalise social democracy It is generally agreed that theories of social democracy, in comparison to theories of formal political democracy, take cognisance of background inequalities that hamper the realisation of basic...