-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...

-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...

-AP New Delhi: India is failing to help and protect journalists who are facing violent threats or attacks for their work, an international watchdog agency said Monday, noting a pattern of resistance in investigating crimes targeting reporters. The Committee to Protect Journalists counted 27 journalists killed for their work since 1992, and noted that it was still investigating more than two dozen cases to determine whether those journalists’ deaths were also work-related....

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Supreme Court has expressed concern over growing human rights violations in Chhattisgarh, a Maoist hotbed, with the Centre and rights activists blaming each other for the state's volatile atmosphere. Journalists, lawyers and civil rights activists have reported being targeted and hounded out of Bastar district after being branded Maoist sympathisers. Tribal activist Soni Sori, who had protested against an alleged fake encounter, had her face burnt with...