India has persisted in retaining the death penalty, notwithstanding the fact that 139 countries across the world have already abolished it while 150 others have put a moratorium on it. The United Nations passed a resolution on September 20, 2010, appealing to all nations to observe a moratorium on the death penalty if they are not agreeable to passing a legislation abolishing it. That formidable opposition to the death penalty seemed...

The Supreme Court today sought the stands of the Centre and various state governments on a plea alleging sterilisation surgeries on women under torchlight, in various places, specially in Bihar, in gross violation of the medical and ethical norms. A bench of justices R M Lodha and H L Gokhale issued notices to the Centre and various states and sought their replies within eight weeks on a public interest litigation by...

-The Hindu Moving towards major reforms, the Centre is in the process of rolling out a universal health coverage package in at least one district in each State on an experimental basis. This would include a clearly defined basket of services to those who come to any Public Health facility for treatment or free supply of generic drugs, doing away with user charges and upgrading Public Health infrastructure right from the primary...

-The Times of India The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has come down hard on the state government over water pollution. Denting the green image of Gujarat, CAG, in its 2011-12 'civil' report, claimed that there is an "upward trend" in the incidence of water-borne diseases due to heavily polluted water sources. It cited South Gujarat as the worst case, where industrial clusters like Vapi and Ankleshwar and Nandesari near Vadodara have been...

It is worrying that the Tendulkar method, chosen by the Planning Commission to calculate the poverty line in its latest figures, underestimates the levels of poverty while overestimating poverty reduction. The figures show that 29.8% or 360 million Indians were poor in 2009-10 as compared to 37.2% or 400 million in 2004-05. A poor person has been defined as one who spends R28 per day in urban areas and R22.5...