-IPS News UXBRIDGE, Canada- Growing water shortages in many countries are a major threat to global security and development and should be a top priority at the U.N. Security Council, a panel of experts said in a new report. However, that report ignores the biggest threat to water security: neoliberal policies of the free market economic system laying waste to the natural world and turning water into a commodity, activists counter. China...

-The Hindu Hearings suspended in Maharashtra, Kerala, Rajasthan A quick survey of the fallout of the Supreme Court order directing that State Information Commissions “henceforth” work on benches of two members each — one of them a ‘judicial member’ and the other an ‘expert member’ — has shown that work in some SICs hearing appeals under the Right to Information (RTI) Act has ground to a halt. Other SICs found no barrier to...

-Economic and Political Weekly  The Government of India is considering a proposal to notify farming as an essential service. This is ostensibly to bring drought relief to farmers suffering from a weak monsoon - a laudable goal indeed. However, if farming is deemed an "essential service", farmers and farm workers could lose many of their political and civic rights because the government can then invoke the Essential Services Maintenance Act to...

-The Hindu Continued self-education is indispensable to honing the skills of lawyers in emerging areas of practice and to their social relevance in a changing world The Indian legal profession has grown over a short period of less than 50 years to become the world’s largest and most influential in the governance of the country. At the same time, it reflects the diversity of Indian society, its caste structure, inequalities and urbanised...

-PTI The CBI has registered five cases in connection with illegal iron ore export scam worth Rs. 2500 crore and carried out searches at 17 locations, including in the premises of associates of jailed mining baron G Janardhan Reddy, on Saturday. Acting on the orders of Supreme Court which asked the agency to probe the scam, the agency registered five cases and a preliminary enquiry against firms and exporters allegedly related...