-The Hindu Bench offers limited and unidimensional explanations to petitioners’ queries The Supreme Court judgment upholding the new Haryana panchayat law, which limits the voter’s freedom to choose his own candidate in a participatory democracy, offers limited and unidimensional explanations to questions and issues raised by parties in court. The judgment by a Bench led by Justice J. Chelameswar does not explain why it considers the reasons for disqualification in Section 175 of...

-The Hindu In a bid to keep pulses price under check, that went sky-rocketing during past few months, the Centre has now decided to create buffer stock of pulses. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Wednesday gave its approval for creation of buffer stock of pulses. The buffer stock will be created in current year itself. In its meeting held here, the CCEA has approved procurement of about 50,000 ton pulses...

-The Hindu India says it is ready for a regime of stocktaking of future carbon emissions. In a clear signal that active diplomacy is at work to forge an agreement in Paris based on voluntary pledges, one that is subject to transparent monitoring, India said on Friday that it was ready for a regime of stocktaking of future carbon emissions. The U.S., on its part, said it had “nothing but respect” for...

-The Hindu In RTI reply, Health Department contradicts its earlier stand Palakkad: Contradicting its own earlier stand that malnutrition was the major reason behind continuing infant mortality in Attappady, the Health Department has stated that no malnutrition-related death was reported from any of the 192 tribal hamlets in the region since January 2013. In a Right to Information (RTI) reply to social worker R.J. Rajendraprasad, the District Medical Officer (DMO) claimed that no...

-Hindustan Times School textbooks in recent decades have frequently become battlegrounds for ideological contestation in India. Most textbook wars are to advance majoritarian perspectives on history and culture. However, a recent very different textbook skirmish broke out about the public and private sectors in healthcare. The story of this ideological clash is bemusing and instructive, illuminating competing perspectives on the nature of education, healthcare and markets in new India. This clash surfaced...