-The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy As Prime Minister Narendra Modi completes four years in office this month, it is becoming increasingly clear that his government has fallen short on the promises made during the 2014 election campaign. The economy has performed below expectations, and some of the economic metrics today are weaker than what the country witnessed in the last years – labelled the ‘policy paralysis’ phase –...

-Hindustan Times Rather than feeling ignored by the mainstream media or disgruntled by the ‘biased’ coverage, dalits are using digital space to publish news and opinions. On December 31, when violence spread in Pune on the 200th anniversary of the Bhima- Koregaon battle, it was the first time many people in other parts of the country got to know about the encounter between the army of Peshwa Bajirao II, and a...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Supreme Court has granted anticipatory bail to four people accused under the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act two months after ruling against the act's provisions that mandate automatic arrests and prohibit anticipatory bail. Maharashtra-based gender rights activist Trupti Desai, her husband and two others associated with her NGO had been accused of abusing a dalit by his caste and robbing him in July last year. The...

-TheWire.in There have been no efforts to regularly compile and publish data on the social, economic and professional backgrounds of judges in either the higher or lower judiciary. The appointment of Indu Malhotra to the Supreme Court has rekindled the debate surrounding the ‘representativeness’ of the judiciary. She is only the seventh woman to be appointed to the Supreme Court in the seven decades of its existence, and the first woman...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday said the country would not be a "civilised society" if the "Damocles sword of arrest" hangs on a citizen constantly, as it prima facie defended its judgment ruling out immediate and mandatory arrest of a person charged under the SC-ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. A bench of Justices A.K. Goel and U.U. Lalit, which briefly heard the Centre's petition seeking a recall of...