-Hindustan Times In the index released on Wednesday, India was ranked just three places above Pakistan and was one notch below violence-torn Palestine. India slipped three places in the 2017 world press freedom rankings to 136th among 180 countries, the dismal performance blamed on “Modi’s nationalism” and growing “self-censorship” in the mainstream media. In the index released on Wednesday, India was ranked just three places above Pakistan and was one notch below violence-torn...

-The Hindu We as citizens are like that... we don’t want to pay taxes, shame on us: Justice Sikri Slamming a tendency in the country to evade taxes, the Supreme Court referred to the mandatory linking of Aadhaar to the Permanent Account Number (PAN) and Income Tax returns as an instance of the government’s efforts to bring “new and new laws to stop leakages.” “When tax evasions are there, the government will try...

-The Hindu The Central Bureau of Investigation has registered a corruption case against its former Director Ranjit Sinha on allegations of abusing his authority to scuttle enquiries, investigations and prosecutions in the coal block allocation cases. He happens to be the second CBI chief to have been booked by the agency in 2017. The case was registered under the Prevention of Corruption Act on Monday pursuant to the Supreme Court directive...

-The Hindu Says India being denied extraditions because countries fear the accused would be treated inhumanely India may be finding it tough to secure extraditions because there is a fear within the international community that the accused persons would be subject to torture here, the Supreme Court said on Monday. A Bench of Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said it was a matter of both Article 21 (fundamental...

-The Hindu These VVPAT machines will be manufactured only as per the design approved by the Election Commission. The Election Commission has issued letter of intent for purchase of 16.15 lakh Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines, following a clearance by the Union Cabinet on fund allocations. The machines will be procured in 2017-18 and 2018-19 at an estimated cost of ?3,173.47 crore from public sector undertakings BEL and ECIL. “In its letter sent...