-The Hindu The Act nullified the controversial March 20 apex court judgment diluting the stringent provisions of the Dalit protection law. The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to stay the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act of 2018, which nullified the controversial March 20 apex court judgment diluting the stringent provisions of the Dalit protection law. The government had brought in the amendments, saying the Scheduled Castes and...

-The Hindu Internet penetration has increased in the last one decade: speakers at a seminar Fake news spreads fast and Internet has its dark side that everyone should be aware of, said speakers at a national conference organised by Gandhi School of Humanities and Social Sciences, a branch of GITAM University, in association with Public Relations Society of India (PRSI), Hyderabad, and Press Club-Hyderabad, here on Thursday. “Six players – Facebook, Amazon, Apple,...

-The Hindu Business Line It is vital to cover the important and vulnerable section of tenant farmers with credit and insurance Tenant farmers rarely get bank credit. They don’t get any subsidies. Money lenders thrive on them because their loans cannot be waived. They also account for 80 per cent of farmers’ suicides in the country. With farmers taking to the streets to highlight their issues these problems should be addressed. State level...

-The Hindu Business Line ‘Centre has presented 5 full-fledged Budgets, does not have the legitimacy for a sixth’ The Congress alleged on Thursday that the Centre is planning to present a full-fledged Budget violating all Parliamentary conventions, procedures and traditions. It maintained that the Narendra Modi government neither has the “electoral mandate” nor the “electoral legitimacy” to present six full Budgets in five years. Talking to reporters, former minister and senior Congress spokesperson...

-Mongabay.com Illegal rat-hole mining in Meghalaya persists despite ruinous effects on the environment The efforts to reach the 15 miners trapped in an illegal coal mine in the East Jaintia hills of Meghalaya since December 13 continue, but they began belatedly and have faced many problems. Doomed from the beginning First, the Meghalaya government has no idea what happens inside these rat-hole mines, which are barely 2 ft wide, since mining is a private...