Members of ‘Bandi Mukti Committee' — a human rights organisation — and a section of the city's intelligentsia demanded the immediate and unconditional release of renowned physician Binayak Sen here on Thursday. Dr. Sen was sentenced to life imprisonment by a Raipur sessions court on December 24 last year on sedition charges. Criticising the way Dr. Sen's lawyer was not allowed to give explanation supporting his client after the judgement, Magsaysay Award-winning...

The National Advisory Council's recommendations on the National Food Security Bill are in danger of being brushed aside. It is the fate of most advisory committees that the government accepts whatever advice suits its purposes and ignores the rest. The first version of the National Advisory Council (NAC-1) managed to avoid that fate to some extent, due to favourable circumstances. NAC-1 was able to persuade the government to enact the...

Members of the Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) district organising committee staged a dharna at Gandhi Chowk here on Thursday to protest against the acquisition of fertile land by the State Government in the name of industrialisation and alleged land scams involving Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa and his Cabinet colleagues. Addressing the agitators, SUCI district secretary Bhagwaan Reddy alleged that the Yeddyurappa-led Bharatiya Janata Party Government came to power by...

The Indian government is exploring a proposal to reduce the limit on foreign direct investment (FDI) allowed in the pharmaceutical industry through the automatic route to 49% from 100% amid concerns over the takeover of local drug makers by overseas firms. Officials from the ministry of commerce and industry and the ministry of health have had multiple rounds of discussions on the proposal following a note written to them by the finance...

If the price rise is due to production shortfall, how does one explain the near doubling of the price within a few days? The sharply rising onion prices have raised the suspicion that speculators are manipulating a shortage situation. First, a few facts. In retail markets, onion prices have soared from Rs 10-11 per kg in June to as high as Rs 70-80 on Dec 21. Even more significantly, prices zoomed by...