Of late, there has been a debate on whether public programmes such as school education, scholarships, health-care delivery and access to microcredit can be targeted at beneficiaries based on religion; some consider this ‘unconstitutional' and argue that it amounts to discrimination. I highlight the constitutional provisions and argue that there is nothing in the Constitution which bars identification of beneficiaries based on religion. Religious identity is listed on a par...

Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi sold off his business in 2003 to do something relevant. The Indian Institute of Technology-Mumbai alumnus soon became a prolific user of the Right To Information Act and filed more than 800 RTI applications. He was appointed the Information Commissioner at the Central Information Commission, New Delhi, in 2008. In this freewheeling interview with rediff.com's Priyanka, Gandhi says that appellants must understand that law describes 'information' as something...

New research from Navdanya and from the US Union of Concerned Scientists proves that Bt cotton yields are actually a third of what Monsanto claims. Genetic engineering is not going to help feed the world, writes Vandana Shiva, but it is going to harm public health and ecosystems We have been repeatedly told that genetically engineered (GE) crops will save the world. They will save the world by increasing yields and...

-The Hindu   Even as the death toll in last week's clash at Gopalgarh went up to nine, the deadlock over the post-mortem on five of the victims of violence in the eastern Rajasthan town ended on Wednesday with their close relatives agreeing to the autopsies with videography in the presence of distinguished persons. A five-member team of doctors from Sawai Man Singh Hospital here started the autopsies at the Bharatpur Government Hospital...

-The Hindu   The report on paid news — listing specific allegations and naming the accused — written by a sub-committee of the Press Council of India (PCI) last year could finally see official publication on the Council's website. While the Council had tried suppressing the report last year — voting 12-9 against submitting it to the government or making it public — the Central Information Commission (CIC) has now directed its publication...