-Down to Earth Threatened by an eviction notice from Shimla High Court over encroachment into forestland, villages come forward to claim their community rights More than 100 villages in Himachal Pradesh have filed their community forest rights claims for the first time since Forest Rights Act (FRA) of 2006 came into being. This happened after the Himachal Pradesh High Court passed an order, in April 2015, asking the government to remove any...

-The Business Standard Industry cheers, unions label the move veiled entry of a 'hire & fire' regime The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre has proposed to give industries some flexibility in hiring contract workers for project-based jobs or short-term assignments, a move cheered by industry but slammed by trade unions as an entry of 'hire and fire' through the back door. The proposal, originally mooted by the previous NDA government...

-PTI NEW DELHI: Greenpeace India will meet representatives of different political parties and raise the issue of fundamental rights, after the government suspended its FCRA registration and blocked its domestic and international bank accounts. Greenpeace India campaigner Priya Pillai said the organization will speak to all the political parties to stand up and protect the fundamental rights. Pillai was recently "offloaded" at Delhi airport from a flight to London where she was scheduled...

-Livemint.com Politicians prefer a short-term response over a more nuanced, structural solution to the problem of rural distress Confirming everyone’s worst fears, last week the India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast a deficient monsoon this year. The next day, some of the newspapers wrongly reported it as a drought (guess breathless reporting is no longer a preserve of the electronic media), adding to the disappointment of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) refusal...

-PTI GUWAHATI: One person was killed and nearly 33,000 affected as six districts of Assam have been hit by flood. The deceased belonged to Bongaigaon district, Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) deputy secretary Nandita Hazarika said in a statement on Sunday. Nearly 33,000 people in 108 villages of Barpeta, Sonitpur, Dhemaji, Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon and Lakhimpur districts were affected, she added. Barpeta district was the worst affected with 12,200 people being affected due to...