-The Indian Express It can be strengthened —by the collection of taxes at the local level, for instance. Democratic decentralisation, conceived two decades ago, seems to be a lost cause at first sight. Beyond lip service by politicians, neither panchayats nor municipalities have captured the public imagination as viable, responsive, accountable institutions of government. Just after the Karnataka panchayat elections, which ended on June 2, the continued disempowerment of local governments is...

-PTI Section 12-1-D of the Consumer Protection Act deals with the manner in which a complaint can be made before NCDRC. In further troubles for Nestle over Maggi issue, the government has filed a complaint on its own with the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) — using a provision for the first time from the nearly three-decade-old Consumer Protection Act. Describing the alleged lapses related to food safety standards in Maggi noodles...

It is difficult for a person to get aadhaar card/number if s/he does not have pre-existing proofs of identity and address. It has been revealed from a reply to RTI application that only 2.19 lakh aadhaar numbers have been issued to people who did not have any other prior identity proof, which is just 0.03% of total aadhaar numbers generated so far. The RTI reply dated 28 April, 2015 by the Unique...

-Hindustan Times India has earned the discomfiting distinction of being home to the highest number of hungry people among 129 countries monitored by the Food and Agriculture Organization. This was revealed in the State of Food Insecurity in the World 2015 report. Though India has improved its own record here by reducing the figure from 210 million in 1990-92 to 194 million now, it has fallen behind China in this regard....

-Down to Earth Kashmir's handmade pashmina shawls have long been threatened by power looms outside the state. The problem has now spread within KASHMIR'S FABLED handcrafted pashmina shawls could soon be a thing of the past. The proliferation of machine-made pashmina products has become a big threat to the livelihood of the state’s artisans who have been spinning and weaving pashmina for ages. According to the Jammu and Kashmir handicraft department, the...