-The Hindu The government's refrain that it would resort to all procedures, including a joint sitting of Parliament, to legislate a spate of ordinances into Acts of legislature, may come to nothing if the Rajya Sabha is stalled in the next session. For one, a pre-condition for a joint sitting is that a Bill, along with a statement of reasons for promulgating the ordinance, should have been first defeated in one...

-CNN-IBN The Narendra Modi government's austerity polices have taken a hit after an RTI report claimed that many BJP MPs enjoyed their overstay at five-star hotels on tax-payers' money. The RTI report showed that till November 15,2014, 92 MPs, since their election, several of them from the BJP, have been living at the Ashoka Hotel in Delhi, in spite of being allotted the government accommodation, said an IBN Live report. The report further...

-The Hindu Year 2015 will be crucial as shale oil firms begin to feel the pinch of low prices Are falling oil prices good or bad for the global economy? And how do they work for India? Till recently these questions were no-brainers. Cheaper oil is obviously good for the global economy; for an energy-intensive economy such as India's, which also depends on imported oil for meeting four-fifths of its needs, a...

-Frontline SHUBHANKAR DAM, Assistant Professor of Law at Singapore Management University School of Law, is the author of Presidential Legislation in India: The Law and Practice of Ordinances (Cambridge University Press, 2014), which has received wide acclaim among scholars of constitutional law. Against the backdrop of his insightful critique on the necessity of ordinances in a democracy, Professor Dam discusses in this interview the recent controversy triggered by the Bharatiya Janata...

-The Times of India VISAKHAPATNAM: The Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy ( UMNRE)'s eco-friendly concept of promoting solar powered water pumps among farmers in coastal AP seems to have met with a tepid response as only 200-odd farmers in the five coastal districts falling under the purview of the Eastern Power Distribution Company of AP Limited (APEPDCL) have evinced interest in picking up these pumps. A few months ago,...