-The Times of India NEW DELHI: A day after the National Green Tribunal banned diesel vehicles older than 10 years and petrol vehicles older than 15 years in Delhi and NCR, the Delhi government was still in the process of trying to access the order. Meanwhile, the Delhi traffic police prosecuted 96 vehicles. Of these, 38 were commercial vehicles while the rest were private vehicles. The traffic police said it had...

-The Hindu The parliamentary stand off over the Indian government's effort to ease procedures to acquire land for "public purposes" continues, with the government deciding to re-promulgate the ordinance amending the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013. Besides concern about the impact that this would have on the farming community and those dependent on it, another cause for the controversy is the...

-The Times of India It was in 2012 that the Centre first promised to provide free drugs in public health facilities. The first budgetary provision was made in 2013. Last year, the promise was crystallized to providing 348 essential drugs free. This was later whittled down to just 50 drugs. And now, the entire idea of a central scheme for free drug distribution has been given a quiet burial. Joint secretary (policy)...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Community radio stations are fuming at what they see as a double whammy from the government: a diktat to publicise its flagship social schemes and an attempt to monitor the content being aired. The community radio stations have been "advised" to base their programmes around Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pet schemes such as the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao and Jan Dhan Yojana, Union information and...

-Economic and Political Weekly While the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act 2001 is a progressive piece of legislation that recognises farmers' rights to seed, it demands payment of an annual maintenance fee by the farmers to protect the varieties which they have been cultivating and conserving for years, only because these varieties have been brought under legal protection through national legislation. Parameswaran Prajeesh (prajeesh@mssrf.res.in) is a researcher with the...