-The Telegraph   New Delhi: The Supreme Court today asked the Centre to allow clinical trials on new pharmaceutical compounds only after ensuring to the extent possible that their potential benefits outweigh their risks and they are needed in India. A bench of Justices R.M. Lodha and Kurien Joseph, responding to a public interest petition by a non-government organisation called Swasthya Adhikar Manch, also told the Centre to ensure that the candidate compounds...

-The Hindu Why does Gujarat have indifferent social indicators, in spite of having enjoyed runaway economic growth and relatively high standards of governance? Gujarat's development achievements are moderate, largely predate Narendra Modi, and have as much to do with public action as with economic growth. As the nation heads for the polling booths in the numbing hot winds of April, objective facts and rational enquiry are taking a holiday and the public relations...

-Women's Feature Service   For tribal communities, the forest has traditionally been their habitat, their source of income and their nutritional lifeline. So protection of the green cover and ready access to forest produce are issues that are connected with their survival. In India, while The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, recognises the rights of forest-dwellers over land and other resources, in reality there...

-The Indian Express   Crops not enough to sustain them, farmers make it work with dairy, fishery, and implement hiring.   Jalandhar: When Harinder Singh of Bhamri village in Kadian block of Gurdaspur district graduated in 2008, his family wanted him to take up postgraduation and go abroad to improve his prospects. Harinder, however, had other ideas - he insisted that he would stay on in the village and follow the family occupation of...

-The Hindu The digital divide has gone out of favour, but millions of Indians not only remain illiterate, but are unable to access welfare schemes Is there a clash between social media and social movements? Or, can social media be used to promote social movements? As political parties intensify their use of social media and election fever heightens in a country where millions are illiterate and have little access to technology, these questions...