Between 2009 and February 2011, at least 14 people were charged with sedition in India London: The typical citizen could be forgiven for fearing that the world’s largest democracy is hurtling towards George Orwell’s 1984 rather than 2013. In late August the government’s department of telecommunications, citing the “communal tensions” around Assam, blocked more than 300 individual web addresses, including the Twitter profile pages of some journalists. It also ordered a limit...

-The Hindu A 2012 WHO study ranks India third — behind Myanmar and Bangladesh — among countries that fail to provide health cover to people. A 2011 study reported in The Lancet on ‘Healthcare and equity’ confirms this: every year, at least 39 million people here fall into poverty due to private out-of-pocket health expenditure. A vast majority of Indians do not have access to healthcare or essential drugs. By the...

-Law et al News The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the central government on a petition seeking to disclose in public all ACRs (Annual Confidential Reports) or performance appraisal reports of all government officials under RTI. A bench of Justice GS Singhvi and Justice SJ Mukhopadhaya today sought response from the government on the petition which raises a vital public issue as to whether performance appraisal reports of a public...

-The Hindu The Supreme Court on Tuesday admitted an appeal from Kerala challenging a Kerala High Court judgment declaring unconstitutional certain provisions of a law enacted by the State to allow meetings on public roads and road margins. A Bench of Justices D.K. Jain and Madan B. Lokur issued notice to the respondents (who were petitioners in the High Court) and directed the hearing to be expedited. When senior counsel K.K. Venugopal,...

-The Hindu The debate on the pros and cons of genetically engineered/modified crops is universal. In India, in the face of vociferous protests, the controversy has only deepened leading to a moratorium on cultivation of Bt Brinjal crop — the first GM food crop sought to be commercialised. Gargi Parsai spoke to Basudeb Acharia, Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture, on its new report, “Cultivation of Genetically Modified Food...