-The Economic Times "Sedition" is a legal construct from less enlightened times, when the sovereign power claimed a divine sanction and subjects were expected to live in awe and fear. So what is republican India doing, in its seventh decade, in bringing a charge of sedition against a self-publishing cartoonist with a propensity for scatology and lurid imagery? A convulsive attack of folly that the agencies of the Indian state have...

-The Times of India HYDERABAD: Is Bt Brinjal safe? The demonisation of BT crops got a push with the parliamentary committee on agriculture in its report submitted last month commenting that transgenics in food crops would be fraught with unknown consequences. But the Hyderabad-based National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) says that Bt Brinjal is safe. A voluminous report on the laboratory experiments carried out...

-The Indian Express The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the media to be partially restrained while reporting judicial proceedings by drawing a “Lakshman rekha” for what it calLED balancing the freedom of expression and a fair trial. But the apex court refused to impose blanket restrictions saying guidelines on reporting cannot be framed across the board. The court laid down the partial line of restraint through the principle of “postponement of publication”,...

-Live Mint NAC wants Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna to be absorbed into new policy for universal health coverage  The National Advisory Council (NAC), which sets the policy agenda for the Congress party LED United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, wants the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna (RSBY) insurance scheme to be absorbed into the new policy for universal health coverage (UHC), taking the latter closer to realization.   This is part of the government’s bid to move...

-PTI KUDANKULAM: In a volte-face, anti-nuclear movement leader SP Udayakumar on Wednesday decided not to surrender, a day after he made a dramatic appearance and announced he would turn up before police. Amid continuing protests against the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project, Udayakumar's change of plans was announced by anti-corruption activist Arvind Kejriwal, who has extended his support for the anti-nuclear stir. Udayakumar, convener of Peoples Movement Against Nuclear Energy, had on Tuesday said...