—PTI For the first time in the two-decade long turmoil in Jammu and Kashmir, a Valley-based human rights group has admitted that militants were responsible for more enforced disappearances than security forces. Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), an organisation seeking the whereabouts of missing persons in the State, said of the 132 cases it has documented, militant groups were responsible for 24 cases of enforced disappearances compared to 22 by...

Despite criticism of the appointment process, and pendency , the Supreme Court appears to enjoy public confidence like no other institution As the Supreme Court of India approaches its final week of hearings for the year, a look back shows it has dominated the national consciousness by ruling on myriad issues. The court was conceived by the framers of the constitution to deal mainly with fundamental questions of law. But India’s top...

Irom Sharmila, 39 year old woman of Manipur has completing her 11th year of her hunger strike on 4th November 2011. She has been fasting to repeal the Armed Forces Special Power act 1958(AFSPA 1958). Against this act, 12 mother of Manipur had challenged the government of India by showing their body without any clothes in public on 15 July 2004. A student’sleader PabemChitaranjan self-emulated himself on the independence day...

The 11th five-year plan promised the nation “inclusive growth”. It marked a departure from the earlier official position that the “benefits of growth” would automatically “trickle down” to the poor, and that if growth was not actually benefiting the poor, then the reason lay in its not being high enough. The 11th plan, by contrast, conceded that the “benefits of growth” did not automatically “trickle down”, but argued that growth...

Academic and chairman of the review committee on the National Curriculum Framework (2005) Yash Pal has pointed out that it was not a “nice thing” to remove parts of the history portion of the Social Science textbook for Class X in Kerala on the grounds that they were deliberate attempts to denigrate certain communities. In an exclusive interview to The Hindu here on Wednesday, Prof. Yash Pal said it (the learning...