-DNA The notice has been served to ‘the people’. The Justice Verma Committee, set up to review the present criminal laws relating to safety and security with an eye to amend them, has asked ‘all members of the public’ among others to respond with ideas, knowledge and experience, to assist the committee in reaching its objective. The notice has been published in many newspapers. This mode of public consultation is not new....

-Frontline Farmers protest against the Central clearance for coal bed methane exploration in Mannargudi, Tamil Nadu, as they fear it will devastate agriculture in Tiruvarur and Thanjavur districts.  THE woes of the delta farmers of Tamil Nadu are far from over. While the Cauvery tangle continues unresolved, they fear the proposed multi-crore project for commercial exploration and exploitation of coal bed methane (CBM) in the Mannargudi block of Tiruvarur district will prove...

-The Financial Express Governments now get into the paid news act. It’s high time for a lesson on ethics for all concerned The spectre of paid news is back, and this time in a murkier form. Where the belief has long been that private companies pay newspapers and TV channels to ‘plant’ stories, it seems that even state governments aren’t above such unethical practices. According to an Indian Express exclusive, the Chhattisgarh...

-The Hindustan Times In an reply to a query under the Right to Information Act , the Union ministry of commerce and industry has admitted that it has no "specific information to furnish" regarding the Union government's claim in a newspaper advertisement that foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail would create over one crore jobs and that 50% of the total foreign investment would be in villages. A Bhopal-based advocate, NK Jain,...

-The Economic Times A publicity campaign by the Gujarat Congress meant to show the NarendraModi government in poor light has boomeranged on the party.   Congress was caught on the wrong foot when it was revealed that the photograph it used in its posters to portray alleged malnutrition among Gujarati children was that of an emaciated Sri Lankan child. The advertisement, which appeared recently in various newspapers and websites, said, "proper nutrition to 45%...