-The Hindu Jaipur: The Congress government in Rajasthan has accused the Centre of adopting a “discriminatory attitude” towards the State’s farmers, reflected in the lower targets set for procurement of mustard and gram on minimum support prices in comparison with the national average. A ceiling of 25-quintal purchase on a day has Been set for the farmers. State Cooperative Minister Udai Lal Anjana has taken up the matter with Union Agriculture Minister Radha...

-The Hindu Isolated innovations are not enough to stop cases of custodial torture In May 2017, addressing representatives from countries at the UN’s Human Rights Council, the then Attorney General of India said, “The concept of torture is completely alien to our culture and it has no place in the governance of the nation.” Last week in Sitamarhi district, Bihar, two families received the bodies of their two sons from the police. The...

-ThePrint.in The CAs, led by Manipal group chairman T.V. Mohandas Pai, have labelled the allegations made by the 108 economists and social scientists ‘baseless’. New Delhi: Days after 108 economists and social scientists accused the Narendra Modi government of altering or withholding unfavourable economic data, a group of 131 chartered accountants (CAs) defended the government and questioned the scholars’ political motivations. The CAs asked all professionals to come together to portray the progress...

-The Hindu Sabotaging the Forest Rights Act damages democracy Since 1980, through the Forest Conservation Act (FCA), the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF) has “diverted for non-forest use” (bureaucratese for destroyed) over 1.5 million hectares of forest. How many Adivasis and forest-dwellers have Been evicted by this ‘lawful’ forest destruction? Stripping these forests has yielded thousands of crores of rupees for corporations to which a bulk of these forestlands...

-Hindustan Times From a constitutional point of view, the scheme fails the tests of rationality and non-arbitrariness Earlier this month, the Supreme Court indicated that it would hear the long-pending constitutional challenge to the electoral bonds scheme. The electoral bonds scheme, which was introduced by the government in early 2018, provides new channels for private funding of political parties, and has Been subjected to severe criticism, including by a former Chief Election...