-The Hindu   The government does it purely on the strength of a certificate issued by the district administration Even as the recent Affidavit submitted by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) before the Supreme Court in the Vedanta case has caused dismay among tribal communities and activists for the dilution of its stand on diverting forest lands of tribal communities, the Ministry has gone a step further and allowed diversion...

-The Hindu Election Commission team coming on April 8 to review poll preparedness Bangalore: Now you can find crucial details about a candidate contesting the Assembly elections - his criminal record and assets/liabilities - in one consolidated format. Information on both these aspects will be part of a single document and will be up on the Election Commission website within 24 hours of it being filed. Hitherto, these details were in scattered in...

-The Hindu The Sunday Story Innocent and unarmed people were beaten up in these incidents. This is animal behaviour: Supreme Court On March 11, the Supreme Court again issued notice to the Centre through the Secretary, Home Department, on police reforms. This was at the suo motu hearing of the case relating to the assault of a woman by Punjab constables and brutal beating up of women teachers in Bihar. Notices were also...

-PTI Hyderabad: Country's only listed micro lender SKS Microfinance today said it plans to resume lending operations in Andhra Pradesh soon, two years after the state government came out with a stringent laws to regulate the industry. SKS Chief Financial Officer, Dill Raj said the recent Supreme Court's interim order was of great relief to them and paves way to resume operations in the state. "That is primary relief we got (from the...

-The Hindu The commission, which has won acclaim for conducting elections with fairness and integrity, is now in danger of seeing a huge gutting of its powers to do so The Union Government has told the Supreme Court that, in its view, the Election Commission of India has no power to disqualify a candidate on grounds of “correctness or otherwise” of his/her election accounts. A counter-Affidavit filed by the Union Law Ministry...