The private member’s Bill that Rahul Gandhi’s close aide and Congress MP Meenakshi Natarajan was scheduled to introduce in Parliament last week lays down a draconian set of rules clearly aimed to gag and threaten the media in the name of “protecting national interest”. Called the Print and Electronic Media Standards and Regulation Bill, 2012, it provides for a media regulatory authority — part selected by the I&B minister and three...

A local court on Monday convicted Samajwadi Party state president and MLA Abu Asim Azmi and four others of making inflammatory speeches to incite communal violence during a rally in 2000. Metropolitan magistrate Sanjashree Gharat of the Mazgaon court sentenced Azmi, Waqarunnissa Ansari, Lalbahadur Singh, Ehsanullah Khan and Ali M Shamsi to two years' imprisonment. When the five sought time to appeal in the sessions court, the magistrate allowed suspension of...

The National Advisory Council has asked the Centre to formulate a national policy to stem the declining sex ratio at birth that it believed was “located at the complex interface of the status of women in Indian society, patriarchal social mores and prejudice, spread and misuse of medical technology and the changing aspirations of urban and rural society”. The council’s draft recommendations — prepared by members Farah Naqvi and A.K. Shiva...

-The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called on India to lead the way in improving health services for women and children, stressing that addressing this issue is a crucial investment in the future of the South Asian nation. "Around the world, some eight million women and children die from preventable causes each year. Almost two million of them are Indian," Mr. Ban said in his remarks at a reception in support...

Srinagar, Apr 29: Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) of Jammu and Kashmir GR Sufi Sunday said the disclosure of information about human Rights violations and corruption by public authorities is mandatory and cannot be exempted in any circumstances under the state law. “Bringing departments out of the purview of the Jammu and Kashmir Right to Information (RTI) Act - 2009, doesn’t mean that they can withhold information over human Rights and corruption,”...