-The Hindu Isolated innovations are not enough to stop cases of custodial torture In May 2017, addressing representatives from countries at the UN’s Human Rights Council, the then Attorney General of India said, “The concept of torture is completely alien to our culture and it has no place in the governance of the nation.” Last week in Sitamarhi district, Bihar, two families received the bodies of their two sons from the police. The...

-Mongabay.com * Women are often called as vulnerable victims of climate change as well as integral to climate change adaptation, but even then government policies overlook the oppression they face. * To address it, the latest report by ICIMOD has suggested a series of measures such as the government allocating resources, financial and human, for gender-responsive interventions, and creation of mechanisms to ensure the promotion of women’s rights. * The report also highlighted...

-The Hindu Justice Joseph cites information law as government seeks to keep Rafale pricing details under wraps An all-out effort by the government to claim privilege and push the Rafale jets’ pricing details back into the dark zone was met with a stoic counter from Justice K.M. Joseph in the Supreme Court on Thursday. The government’s reasons to hush the Rafale prices ranged from national security to not upsetting a “solemn undertaking” given...

-Livemint.com In conversation with Guy Standing, economist at the School Of Oriental and African Studies, University of London Neither the Narendra Modi government nor Rahul Gandhi have gotten minimum income scheme right, he says New Delhi: Income support is the big economic idea of the season. While the ruling BJP government announced a limited money transfer scheme targeted at farmers in the recent interim budget, the Congress has proposed to solve the country’s...

-The Hindu Both Human Rights and wildlife rights groups have not used the Forest Rights Act as a conservation tool On February 13, the Supreme Court ordered the eviction of more than 10 lakh Adivasis and other forest dwellers from forestland across 17 States. The petitioners, mainly wildlife NGOs, had demanded that State governments evict those forest dwellers whose claims over traditional forestland under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers...