The Anderson saga is one more reminder that the powerful can always count on official help.  In the fall of 2002, Greenpeace campaigner Casey Harell paid a surprise visit to the New York State private estate of Warren Anderson, and found him living a “life of luxury”. Nothing odd about the discovery except that in the eyes of the law Mr. Anderson was untraceable, and had been so since 1992...

Judicial activism has faced several assaults from politicians and bureaucrats ever since the Supreme Court became affirmative. But the sad part is that it has had to also face onslaughts from within. When the public interest litigation movement was in its infancy, a bench of strict constructionists one morning brought up 10 questions that would have choked its growth in coils of conservative interpretation of the Constitution (Sudip Mazumdar vs Union...

High levels of toxic chemicals are still found in Bhopal's drinking water, a new report published ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Bhopal gas tragedy, said. Residents in the areas surveyed have high rates of birth defects, rapidly rising cancer rates, neurological damage, chaotic menstrual cycles and mental illness, it said. The report also questions the reliability of the tests carried out in at the AES Laboratories in New Delhi. The...

In a clear message to Maoists, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Wednesday that no sustained economic activity is possible under the shadow of gun in tribal areas where decades of alienation is taking a "dangerous" turn. He said there has been a "systemic failure" in giving tribals a stake in the modern economic processes and emphasised that the "systematic exploitation and social and economic abuse of our tribal communities...

The distribution of iron fortified rice is part of the Government of India's push to combat anaemia and it will become a near mandatory programme for the poor, for whom this rice will be inescapable i.e., PDS, ICDS, school meals, etc.  The fact-finding visit was organised by Alliance for Sustainable & Holistic Agriculture (ASHA-Kisan Swaraj) and the Right To Food Campaign (RTFC) between June 13th to 15th 2022, and included a...