-The Hindu The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Centre to convene a meeting of chief secretaries of all States and Union Territories in six weeks for evolving a consensus in regard to the regulation of sale of acid in the States/Union Territories to prevent acid attacks. A three-Judge bench of Justices R.M. Lodha, J. Chelameswar and Madan B. Lokur gave this direction to the Additional Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran who submitted...

The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) has been the target of criticism from industry groups to the Prime Minister for allegedly holding up infrastructure and industrial development through its system of green clearances. But a recent analysis of 5 years of decision-making put out by an environmental group suggests why these attacks might be misplaced, given the ease with which every single of 262 proposed hydropower and irrigation projects...

-The Hindu FIR filed under IT Act; six suspects identified Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said on Tuesday the police would act tough on the “handful of morons” abusing and harassing girl members of the Valley’s musical bands, even as the first criminal case was registered under the Information Technology Act and six of the suspects were identified. “We’ll leave no stone unturned to ensure that every one of them is...

-Counterpunch.org     “The rearing and guiding of a civilization must depend upon its intellectual class.”     BR Ambedkar, Ranade, Gandhi and Jinnah, 1943, Delhi. I. Arrest. States are clumsy with their enormous power. When it suits the modern state, it uses it immense apparatus to constraint those who make claims upon it or who say things that denigrate this or that section of society. A college professor in West Bengal draws a cartoon of...

-Al Jazeera Widening wealth gap in Beijing has stoked concerns over its impact on political and social stability. The Chinese government has issued a pledge to narrow the widening income gap between rich and poor, which includes raising its minimum wage and requiring state companies to turn over more profits to pay for social programmes. The pledge on Tuesday promised more spending on health, education and job training but gave few details and...