-The Hindu The imposition of Aadhaar-based biometric authentication in the Public Distribution System threatens to disrupt recent progress with PDS reforms. It also deprives millions of people of essential food entitlements. India’s Public Distribution System (PDS) has improved steadily during the last 10 years. The system used to be most ineffective and corruption-ridden, with leakages of around 50 per cent at the national level, going up to 80 or 90 per cent...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Tens of thousands of people who relocated from riot-torn areas of Muzaffarnagar to areas with minority concentration find themselves out of the government's grid even three years after the violence forced them to flee their homes. This is the main finding of a survey conducted by NGOs Aman Biradari and Afkar India of the 65 colonies that have come up in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli to house the 30,000...

-Press Note from Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy and the Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms (CJAR) The Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy and the Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms co-organized an important panel discussion on appointments to the Higher and Subordinate Judiciary, on the 31st of August 2016 at the India International Centre, Delhi. Diverse stakeholders, including senior advocates, Journalists, academics and activists formed part of the Panel. There...

-The Hindu The findings point to corruption, politics as the adversaries of Journalists working in small towns. Reporting in India can be a dangerous business as a report compiled by an independent watchdog, the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ), has observed. Twenty-seven Journalists have died under unnatural circumstances since 1992; increasingly, the victims are from small towns. There have been zero convictions, raising questions about the governments’ intent to allow Journalists...

-The Times of India Last week, the Madurai bench of the Madras high court passed an interesting order. It directed the HC registrar (administration) to "instruct" the media not to publish or broadcast names of lawyers while reporting court cases. It felt such publication was an indirect advertisement of their professional capabilities. Probably, it was based on the Bar Council of India rules, which say, "An advocate shall not solicit work...