-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Congress talks about safeguarding privacy, Trinamool warns of the misuse of surveillance and CPM proposes limiting the influence of technology behemoths. Leading political parties have woken up to the issue of digital rights in their poll manifestos, a move that has been welcomed by civil society and activists. The Congress manifesto promises to safeguard privacy and personal data by passing laws. It also lays down ambitious...

-The Hindu Sabotaging the Forest Rights Act damages democracy Since 1980, through the Forest Conservation Act (FCA), the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF) has “diverted for non-forest use” (bureaucratese for destroyed) over 1.5 million hectares of forest. How many Adivasis and forest-dwellers have been evicted by this ‘lawful’ forest destruction? Stripping these forests has yielded thousands of crores of rupees for corporations to which a bulk of these forestlands...

-Frontline.in Interview with Aruna Roy. ARUNA ROY is a well-known social and political activist. A former Indian Administrative Service officer, she resigned from the IAS in 1975 and has since worked with the most oppressed in society. Aruna Roy’s observation on government service is indicative of her future concerns: “Everyone calls it an elite service; I always felt the discourse should be a bit better than what it was. I was shocked...

-Frontline.inJean Dreze is a well-known Indian economist working in the field of "development economics". Born in Belgium, he studied mathematical economics at the University of Essex and completed his PhD from the Indian Statistical Institute (New Delhi) in 1982.He has taught at the London School of Economics and the Delhi School of Economics and is currently visiting professor at Ranchi University as well as honorary professor at the Delhi School...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: When she saw a family all at sea in the court corridors, advocate Anjali Rajput stepped in to offer free legal aid. Like her, over 130 advocates on the panel of the Delhi State Legal Services Authority (DSLSA) offer much-needed help to citizen litigants in Delhi's 11 districts, not only in courtrooms, but also through awareness camps in schools, slums, police stations and other public...