Jayprakash Narayan on the recent SC judgement that reinstated mandatory discloures from election candidates.

The Post Office (Amendment) Bill 2006 proposes to give the Department of Posts an unaccountable monopoly role in the delivery of small letters and couriers, and introduces a registration system for private carriers. Kaushiki Sanyal presents a legislative brief of a Bill that harkens back to the license raj.

Compared to the death penalty, life imprisonment is considered less harsh. The courts have preferred to leave undefined exactly how long such punishment should be, and commutation pleas are considered on a case-by-case basis. Ipshita Sengupta reports.

Disagreements on the Lokpal, even amongst the reform-minded, have arisen because globally there is no consensus about the exact role of the ombudsman. Rajeev Kadambi looks at the options before the Hazare-Government panel.

The Court of Appeals in Philippines has recently passed an order, prohibiting field trials of GM Bt Brinjal. As the Indian government seeks to push through the BRAI Bill, Neha Saigal exposes its loopholes and argues why we should go the Philippines way.

PRS Legislative Research summarises the key highlights of a report from the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice titled Infrastructure Development and Strengthening of Subordinate Courts.

As we approach the parliamentary elections, India Together presents a quick familiarisation with members of the Lok Sabha in certain key urban constituencies. In the first of the series, Amrita Mukherjee introduces you to the sitting MPs from Kolkata.

The court decision prohibiting immediate arrests under IPC Section 498A meets the need for safeguards against false charges and enjoys the support of many, including a budding filmmaker. But does it come at a greater risk to genuine victims? Shoma Chatterji explores.

A quick summary of the recently passed Constitution (121st Amendment) Bill 2014 from PRS Legislative Research outlines the broad changes that it will bring about in the judicial structure of the country.

A recent UGC-sponsored seminar on the incidence of cyber crime, hosted in Kolkata, drew attention to the safeguards to be adopted as also the right procedure to be followed in order to obtain redress. Amrita Mukherjee reports.

Around 40 RTI activists in the country have been killed in recent years, several of them after the Whistleblowers Protection Act was passed. Satarupa Sen Bhattacharya explores why the said law has been unable to achieve its stated end.

No, net neutrality is not just about IT and activists! If you're still wondering why over two lakh people have already written to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) about that, and whether you should follow suit, Supriya Unni Nair has some details for you.

Shalini Bhutani takes a close look at the law and ensuing policy on trade in India, and asks whether the regulatory framework on trade issues nurtures the idea of public consultation.

You don’t have to fear police harassment if you report or help an injured accident victim. You don’t even have to reveal personal details unless you wish to testify. Here’s a summary of the “Good Samaritan” guidelines that the apex court has now made compulsory for states to follow.

K N Govindacharya, the pracharak-turned-politician who led the Bharatiya Janata Party into power in the 1999 elections, is today a staunch campaigner against the politics and economics of globalization. He now promotes swadeshi development and says he has renounced party politics. N P Chekkutty caught up with Govindacharya.

Many believe that in business, environmental values and a pro-poor focus are liabilities. But a set of global factors are going to change the rules of the game, warns Stuart Hart, a leading authority on the implications of sustainable development and environmentalism for business. An India Together exclusive interview.

Given the complex and dynamic political scenario in India today, where is the country's leadership headed? How will people vote in the assembly elections this year and how will it impact the national outcome? Eminent political scientist Sandeep Shastri shares his views on that and more with Satarupa Sen Bhattacharya

As long as we engender a society that allow law enforcers to get away with their own crimes, law breakers will only be emboldened. We must make Police Complaints Authorities around the country meaningful, says Subramaniam Vincent.

Nityanand Jayaraman reports on the recent engagement of a delegation from Bhopal seeking justice in the United States.

Himanshu Upadhyaya chronicles the unchecked financing improprieties around Madhya Pradesh's Maheshwar Hydroelectric Power project.

Thousands of women in Madhya Pradesh were elected in the last panchayat elections; since then, the story has taken a dismal turn. More than 1,300 women sarpanchs face false charges of corruption. About 50 have been removed from office through forced no-confidence motions. They have been threatened and humiliated. Shuriah Niazi reports.

Twenty years ago Sehore was a very livable town. It had a beautiful microclimate and was surrounded by forests and water bodies that never dried up. Today it is becoming a village again, finds Kalpana Sharma.

An independent committee appointed by the state validates and upholds most of the objections raised by civil society against attempted privatisation of water supply in Khandwa. Shripad Dharmadhikary, Rehmat and Gaurav Dwivedi discuss the report.

New Delhi's citizen crusaders for the state's Right to Information law are now taking their methods and inspiration to other localities, reports Varupi Jain.

Ration shopkeepers won't divulge their records, Food Department officials wont file complaints, and the police wont act on their own or accept complaints from the public. But the cycle of corruption can still be broken.

The flower industry suffers from logistical bottlenecks and inadequate post-harvest infrastructure, but government support has focussed mostly on the growers. Varupi Jain starts at Delhi, India's apex flower market, and travels back the supply chain.

In conversation with Vinita Deshmukh, Magsaysay award winner Arvind Kejriwal talks about India's RTI movement, and worries that a formidable tool of empowerment might slip out of the hands of citizens if amendments proposed by the UPA government are enacted.

These kids can hold their own on sensationalism in the media. Why? Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi's vision of journalism, they help put together a newspaper called The Yamuna. Shobha S V has more.

He said no to Brook, as he would not be allowed to carry hemp to the US! He had selective praise for Dylan and was openly caustic about contemporary artists. Shoma A. Chatterji reviews a biographical film on Gour Khepa, the brilliant and eccentric baul who lived life on his own terms.

Every year the Knight fellowships program at Stanford University awards eight international fellowships for journalism innovation. This year, one of the eight is your own newsmagazine’s co-founder.

As the refugee crisis deepens in Syria, visuals of millions of people hoping to catch a train to a better life fill the media space. Shalini Bhutani reflects on the state of refugee policies in the South Asian region while remembering her own father’s experience weeks before the India-Pakistan partition.

The Dhanbad and Jharia regions in Jharkhand, noted for rampant coal mining and related operations, face grave environmental issues due to dumping of pollutant by-products from coal washeries. Shripad Dharmadhikary reports after a visit to Dhanbad.

With help from formal learning centres, CRY, and the Dalit and Adivasi Liberation Trust, Orissa's forgotten villages work to control their own destinies.

The Supreme Court acknowledges the indictment of Vedanta's operations in India by the Norwegian Council on Ethics, but its recent verdict appears to let the company off lightly, treating the Indian subsidiary as unrelated to its parent. Kanchi Kohli reports.

Resistance to large projects is founded on many fears and objections. Key among them is loss of access to water. Without proper consideration of the water impacts of development plans, public acceptance of these projects will remain elusive, writes Shripad Dharmadhikary.

Ganjam migrants in Surat send home Rs. 400 crore a year, a fourth of that through the unique Tappawala courier system. But global recession has seen remittances take a hit, writes P Sainath.

In response to the devastating floods in Gujarat, state officials were quick to point fingers at activists who have long opposed raising the height of the Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada. And even though their claims were clearly off-track, at least one publication thought it fit to repeat them. Himanshu Upadhyaya reports.

The key challenge facing the security apparatus at all levels is to combat the idea that while carrying out their duties the armed forces can act outside the scope of the law, says Firdaus Ahmed.

Developments in Manipur seem to indicate that our infrastructure planners are proposing security costs to construction of large dams on the back of strategic risks analysis. This, even though they may not have embraced a sensitivity to undertake geological/ecological risk analysis itself, finds Himanshu Upadhyaya.

At an international forum earlier this month, government claims of progress on providing water and sanitation were challenged by a number of NGOs. Darryl D'Monte reports.

The LDF government's recent payment of compensation to the victims is a great climb down, for this is the first time a Kerala government has conceded that endosulfan was the cause of the unusual and lethal health disorders that spread in Kasargode. Does this mean more for the victims to look forward to? P N Venugopal finds out.

There is a strong case to reschedule the Kashmir valley railway line project, says Pavan Nair.

A senior advocate at the Srinagar High Court, Parvez Imroz helped bring together hundreds of Kashmiri families whose members have disappeared in the conflict. The media have not been forthright when reporting about Kashmir, he tells Joe Athialy in this interview, but acknowledges that the support of other people's movements is vital.

The ruling government has seen limited success in some areas, but the state's lingering needs seem to have been forgotten in the war of personalities ahead of the looming parliamentary elections. Ratna Bharali Talukdar has more.

It has been happening for several years under the nose of the Haryana administration. The nation's top government auditor has issued multiple indictments. And yet they have polluted recklessly. Himanshu Upadhyaya tells the tale.

The numbers are among the worst in the world. But instead of addressing the infinite nightmare of poverty, the Indian government appears to be doing away with the poor altogether by statistical jugglery and artificially lowering the poverty line, says Colin Gonsalves.

Most governments that stressed welfarist measures gained in last month's elections. Food prices and cheap rice are crucial, though not the sole issues, notes P Sainath.

Only when we think of providing the basic necessities to the millions of poor women around India will empowerment mean anything for them, writes R Balasubramaniam.

Why is there a huge discrepancy between official calculations of poverty and the alternative figures arrived at by many scholars as well as development agencies, asks Prahlad Shekhawat.

Thousands of Mishings find themselves in makeshift homes along the embankments of Majuli island. The river has destroyed more than their lands and homes. Now, their very lives are at risk. Ratna Bharali Talukdar reports.