In a secluded hospital bed in this bustling Indian metropolis, a woman who has lain brain dead for 37 years after a brutal sexual assault is at the centre of a national debate on mercy killing. India’s Supreme Court has ruled that Aruna Shanbaug should live, while at the same time supporting passive euthanasia - or the withholding of medical treatments that are keeping her alive. The court’s decision to rule out...

Final draft bill on website within a week for public comments NAC hopes Bill will create a “robust accountability system” Government will be obliged to lay down national standards for all provisions for victims After several extensions, and a controversy over the exit of members of its drafting and advisory committees, the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC)'s draft Communal & Sectarian Violence Bill is finally ready: it will be presented on Thursday...

Revelations by the WikiLeaks are having a positive impact, believes its founder Julian Assange, who claims that the publication of secret US embassy cables by the Indian media had helped inspire an anti-graft movement in the country. Questioned at a public debate about the whistleblowing organisation's own transparency, Assange told an audience of 700 people, many of them supporters: "We are directly supported on a week-to-week basis by you. You vote...

For a poor boy from the dark heart of tribal India, constable Kartam Surya has done well. An 8th class pass from the village of Misma in South Bastar’s Dantewada district — in the so-called Maoist 'liberated zone' in Chhattisgarh — 26-year-old Surya makes sure he gives his father, a marginal farmer scratching a living from the land, enough money to live in peace and comfort. "Surya is a good son...

Takes suo motu cognisance of the March 23 report published by The Hindu NEW DELHI: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), taking suo motu cognisance of the March 23 report published by The Hindu on murders, violence and rape in a Chhattisgarh village, has sought a report within two weeks from the Union Home Secretary, Chhattisgarh Chief Secretary and the Director-General of Police (DGP). Agnivesh attacked Social Activist Swami Agnivesh, who was attacked...