In March 2024, the Indian government issued revised guidelines under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPWD) Act, 2016. These guidelines provide a framework for assessing the extent of disability of people with two copies of the sickle cell gene, or with both sickle cell and beta thalassaemia, or Hb D. Sickle cell disease (SCD) … Read more
The Gauri Lankesh murder trial began only in March 2022 — nearly five years after she was shot dead in front of her house — and has moved at a glacial pace. | Photo Credit: The Hindu Two years ago, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had said at an event commemorating journalist Gauri Lankesh’s murder … Read more
More than the outcomes, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to visit China for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit was a clear message from the government on a shift in its foreign policy outlook. It has been seven years since Mr. Modi had travelled to China, and his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping was … Read more
The intellectual property (IP) world — the complex labyrinth of laws, lobbyists, court rulings, corporate interests, and legal treatises that protects creativity — can be bewildering at times. This is the world where Disney lobbied Congress to extend the copyright term, helping keep Mickey Mouse out of the public domain as the U.S. copyright term … Read more
Better ties with China The fact that India and China have expressed their commitment to a fair resolution of the border issue augurs well for bilateral relations between the two neighbours (Front page, September 1). One only hopes that this commitment would lead to a faster de-escalation and withdrawal of troops along the Line of … Read more
‘Why should the government not be flexible and forthcoming in implementing the rules for the benefit of all defence and security personnel?’ | Photo Credit: AP It was with a sense of relief that one read about the Supreme Court of India taking up, suo motu following a media report, the case of cadets who … Read more
Afghanistan reeled on Monday in the wake of a strong earthquake and multiple after-shocks, killing over 1,400 people, and injuring at least 3,100. According to the United States Geological Survey, the primary tremor was an earthquake of magnitude 6.3 and had struck near Jalalabad, Nangarhar province. After the first tremor, of magnitude 6.3, at a … Read more
With the retirement of Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia, on August 9, 2025, there were two vacancies in the Supreme Court of India. It was an opportune time to correct the acute gender imbalance in the Court and appoint women judges, but this did not happen. Justice B.V. Nagarathna is the sole woman judge out of the … Read more
India’s free trade agreement (FTA) with the U.K., heralded as the gold standard by the Minister for Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal, has a lot going for it. Yet, it does not address the one imminent policy instrument that is likely to significantly upend its possible benefits for India. The U.K.’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism … Read more
Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) is in the grip of a drug crisis. Data from the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment found that in 2022, around 1.08 lakh men and 36,000 women in J&K reported using cannabis in 2022. About 5.34 lakh men and 8,000 women consumed opioids, 1.6 lakh men and 8,000 women used … Read more