-Hindustan Times The judgment in Puttaswamy takes privacy far beyond the confines of Article 21 and weaves it into other fundamental rights such as the freedom of conscience, the freedom of assembly and the freedom of occupation. Fundamental rights were once described by the Supreme Court as “empty vessels into which each generation must pour its content in light of its experience” (PUCL v Union of India (2003) 4 SCC 399). Close to...

-The Hindu Business Line At an organic market in Odisha, middle-class consumers get to interact with the producers of their food and appreciate traditional knowledge systems One Sunday morning in January, I visited an organic produce market located amidst dense bougainvillea creepers and rows of trees, on the grounds of the six-decade-old Christian Hospital in Bissamcuttack, a town in western Odisha’s Rayagada district. In policy and public imagination, Odisha, particularly its western districts...

-The Indian Express Art of Living argument in NGT is hinged on a catch: wetlands get their identity only through notification by govt under Rules. The Rules have been around since 2010, but not one wetland has been notified yet. Last week, during the hearing of the case against Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s Art of Living (AoL) Foundation at the National Green Tribunal (NGT), counsel for AoL brought up the concept of...

-The Indian Express   Niti Aayog proposal for privatising public hospitals is ill-designed, driven by ideology more than welfare The corporate hospitals have been resting their gaze on public hospitals for long: Land, doctors and patients. Finally, in the Niti Aayog, they have found a sympathetic collaborator. As per media reports, the Aayog is all set to push states to privatise well functioning district hospitals in the Tier 2 and 3...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court continued to subject the debate on constitutional status for the right to privacy to close scrutiny, saying economic rights of citizens and provision for food and other essential items could never be a ground to undermine basic fundamental rights. This observation came when senior advocate C A Sundaram, appearing for the Maharashtra government, reiterated the Centre's stand that right to privacy would always...