-First Post Predictably, the recommendation by an experts’ panel appointed by the Supreme Court - that trials of genetically modified (GM) crops should be halted for 10 years – has stirred a hornet’s nest. Such a moratorium would include ongoing trials and the court rejected it. This follows on the heels of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture’s 492-page report published in August which asked for the banning of GM food crops...
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Trafficked maids to order: The darker side of richer India
-CNN-IBN Inside the crumbling housing estates of Shivaji Enclave, amid the boys playing cricket and housewives chatting from their balconies, winding staircases lead to places where lies a darker side to India's economic boom. Three months ago, police rescued Theresa Kerketa from one of these tiny two-roomed flats. For four years, she was kept here by a placement agency for domestic maids, in between stints as a virtual slave to Delhi's...
More »Supreme Court issues directions to curb sexual harassment of women in public transport
-The Times of India Laying down stringent procedures to curb and punish harassment of women in public transport, the Supreme Court has ordered that in the event of a complaint of a woman, the bus driver must immediately drive the vehicle to the nearest police station. If the driver fails to do so, authorities must cancel his permit to ply. This is part of a series of directions issued on Friday by...
More »The quiet grip of caste -Jean Drèze
-The Hindustan Times Some time ago I visited a Dalit hamlet in Rewa district. It was hemmed in on all sides by the fields of upper-caste farmers, who refused to allow any approach road to reach the hamlet. There were short roads inside the hamlet, but they stopped abruptly at the edge of it. The hamlet felt like an island, surrounded by hostile territory. I wondered whether any other country still...
More »Reforms Initiated under RTE Act
-Press Information Bureau The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 has brought in several reform processes. States/UTs have inter-alia brought out notifications prohibiting corporal punishment, detention and board examinations in elementary education. The National Council for Teachers’ Education (NCTE) has laid down teacher qualifications and 22 States/UTs have conducted Teacher Eligibility Tests to improve the quality of teaching. In order to ensure free and compulsory education for...
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