-The Times of India HARIDWAR: A fine of Rs 11 lakh has been imposed on Yoga guru Ramdev's company, Patanjali Ayurved Ltd, by a city court on charges of misbranding and misrepresentation of its products. In its order, the court of Lalit Narain Mishra, Haridwar's additional district magistrate, found the company, which is currently eyeing at doubling its revenues from the current Rs 5,000 crore to almost Rs 10,000 crore by the...

-PTI According to the study, women who use open defecation sites are twice as likely to get raped compared to women using a home toilet. Washington: Women in India who use open defecation are prone to sexual violence and infrastructure improvements can provide them with some level of protection, a US university researcher has said. “Open defecation places women at uniquely higher risk of one type of sexual violence: non-partner,” says Approva...

-The Hindu Biodiversity integration into developmental plans is crucial for sustainable development In a ‘Mann Ki Baat’ broadcast recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his environmental concerns clear when he asked people to use Ganesha and Durga idols made of clay instead of plaster of Paris. His appeal is bound to stimulate our environmental consciousness and encourage the preservation of precious natural resources. We need to build on this appeal and follow...

-The Hindu People migrating due to environmental disasters should be accorded ‘refugee’ status in international law An increasing number of people globally are facing displacement due to droughts, famines, rising sea levels and other natural disasters caused by climate change. This class of migrants has been labelled as ‘environmental refugees’ in popular literature. According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, an international body reviewing trends of internal displacement, an estimated 24 million...

-DNA The Dalits of Bundelkhand, its most oppressed section of society are leaving the region in droves due to a lack of employment opportunities. Meanwhile, their children are being deprived of education, too, either because of a loss of regular income or because of caste discrimination On October 24, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a Parivartan rally in Mahoba in Uttar Pradesh where he highlighted the presence of large numbers of...