Former law minister and anti-Emergency crusader Shanti Bhushan on Tuesday pleaded with a Supreme Court's five-judge constitution bench not to go ahead with the framing of reporting guidelines and said fetters on press freedom would impede democracy.  Bhushan cited the infamous ADM Jabalpur case judgement rendered by a constitution bench of the Supreme Court, which had by 4:1 majority upheld suspension of right to life during the Emergency, and said it...

-The Times of India   The Supreme Court on Monday said pricing of petrol and diesel determined by a complex mechanism fell exclusively within executive's policy domain and refused to entertain a public interest litigation demanding rollback of repeated sharp hikes in motor fuel prices.  Ex-MP P C Thomas had filed the appeal in the apex court challenging a Kerala high court's decision to dismiss his PIL questioning "irrational and hypothetical fixation of...

-The Wall Street Journal These days, Indian policymakers are debating how to create a vast new food entitlement program. There is talk of poor households struggling to cope with high food prices and malnourishment among their children. What you don’t hear much about, however, is the most tragic and outrageous consequence of India’s failure to feed its people adequately: starvation deaths. India is a nation that prides itself on having been self-sufficient in...

-The Indian Express Gay rights activists today submitted in Supreme Court that criminalising homosexual acts is against constitutional values and that the law should not interfere when consenting adults are involved. Naz Foundation, an NGO working for the welfare and rehabilitation of HIV infected people, contended that homosexuals face social ostracism with gay sex being declared as an offence. Appearing before a bench of justices G S Singhvi and S J Mukhopadhaya, the...

One of the key factors to inclusive growth is financial inclusion for all. Financial inclusion refers to universal access to a wide range of banking solutions and financial services in a fair, predictable and transparent manner at affordable costs. The poor tend to be ignored because the transaction costs in serving them are high. Initiatives that reduce these costs will allow service providers to begin thinking of financial services for...