-The Tribune Right from the inception of parliamentary democracy in our country, every party has appointed a whip tasked with disciplining the elected representatives. But what about direct command from the voters? Why can’t the voters bypass the parties and instruct their representatives on how to conduct themselves in Parliament? THE Samyukt Kisan Morcha’s decision to issue a ‘voters’ whip’ is one more democratic innovation in these dark times when formal democratic...

-The Financial Express The DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill will be taken up by Parliament in the ongoing monsoon session. The DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill will be taken up by Parliament in the ongoing monsoon session. The Bill has had several iterations over the past 15 years, even as more than 60 nations have given the requisite legislative backing to the activities involving DNA technology—largely policing/ investigative...

-Newslaundry.com The figures, disclosed under the RTI Act, show that Network18 was the biggest beneficiary of the UP government’s deep pockets in 2020-21. The Uttar Pradesh government spent a staggering Rs 160.31 crore on advertisements on TV news channels between April 2020 and March 2021, reveals a right to information reply by the state government. The RTI divided the state’s ad expenditure into “national TV news channels” and “regional TV news channels”. The...

-The Hindu State registers the lowest undercount factor in north India The number of “excess deaths” registered by the Civil Registration System (CRS) in Himachal Pradesh ever since the COVID-19 pandemic hit (from April 2020 to May 2021) was 6,081, which is 1.9 times the official reported figure of 3,127 COVID-19 deaths for the same period. This multiple is among the lowest for States for which excess deaths have been calculated. Interestingly, while...

-PTI/ The Hindu 1,19,000 Indian children lost caregivers to COVID-19, says Lancet report The countries with the highest number of children who lost primary caregivers include South Africa, Peru, United States, India, Brazil, and Mexico. More than 1.5 million children in 21 countries, including 1,19,000 from India, lost their primary and secondary caregivers to COVID-19 during the first 14 months of the pandemic, according to a study published in The Lancet. The study funded...