The Supreme Court today directed the Haryana government to file a fresh status report within three weeks giving details of the relief and rehabilitation measures undertaken in Mirchpur, the scene of violence against Dalits in April this year. A Bench comprising Justices GS Singhvi and AK Ganguly passed the order after senior counsel Colin Gonsalves, appearing for the victims comprising about 150 families which had fled the village following the incidents,...

The National Advisory Council, headed by Congress President Sonia Gandhi, on Saturday settled for a much less ambitious National Food Security Act than it had previously agreed to. Scaling down its recommendations, it decided to recommend subsidised foodgrains for 46% of the rural Indian population and 28% of the urban population. The pruning of the recommendation had an immediate fallout, with the NAC member Jean Dreaze, face of the right-to-food security campaign,...

Businesses and policy-makers need to recognize the tremendous economic value of ecosystems, as well as the social and economic costs of losing such natural resources as forests, freshwater, soils and coral reefs, a new United Nations report released today said. The report by the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB), a body hosted by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), seeks to galvanize the world to recognize the economic consequences of failing...

A 50-year-old Dalit woman who had complained of being denied entry into a temple in Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh's village, Jait, about three months ago, has now alleged that she was raped by two men for speaking against the upper castes. The woman had spoken out against discrimination by upper castes in Jait three months ago and that complaint had caused major embarrassment to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj...

With more than 400 million Indians going to bed hungry each day, food security has become a crucial issue. On June 4 last year, the president made an announcement: “My government proposes to enact a new law — the National Food Security Act — that will provide statutory basis for a framework which assures food security for all. Every family below the poverty line in rural as well as urban...