KEY TRENDS   • Oxfam India's 2023 India Supplement report on poverty and inequality in India reveals that the gap between the rich and the poor is widening. Following the pandemic in 2019, the bottom 50 per cent of the population have continued to see their wealth chipped away. By 2020, their income share was estimated to have fallen to only 13 per cent of the national income and have less than 3...

-Newslaundry The Government of India has removed exemptions for journalistic work from data protection obligations in the fourth iteration of the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2022. If this iteration is passed as law a story containing personal data may result in journalists having to prove to a data protection board that their story was in the public interest, Newslaundry reported. The three previous versions - in 2018, 2019 and 2021...

-The Hindu Earlier it had said 122 farmers had committed suicide in a single district in the State In an unusual development, the West Bengal Government has retracted its response to a Right to Information (RTI) query where it had said 122 farmers had committed suicide in a single district in the State.  The State Government has told the RTI applicant that the report, which was sent earlier to him, was “erroneous and...

-Countercurrents.org The Right to Information (Amendment) Act, 2019 was passed by both the houses of parliament in July 2019. The opposition parties had been arguing against the proposed changes in the Right to Information Act of 2005 through this amendment. The Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act, 2005) came in existence after a long movement against transparency and accountability in governance. It enabled all citizens of India the right to...

-Newsclick.in The demolition of houses and displacement of about 5,000 people stem from the BJP government’s plan to start an ‘agricultural project’ in Gorukhuti. As we publish this article, there are reports that the eviction of Muslim families in Gorukhuti in Darrang District by Assam Police took an ugly turn on Thursday with reports of police firing claiming at least three lives. Unconfirmed reports said the death toll could be higher. The...