The supposed sanctity of Indian judiciary has taken a major hit over the issue of appointment of Justice KM Joseph as a Supreme Court judge. With the Supreme Court collegium and the Union Government taking conflicting stands on the elevation of Joseph from being the...
The long arm of the law is far too short for the Mehul Choksi or Vijay Mallya types. Someone like Choksi is safely out of the reach of Indian laws in the beautiful Caribbean island nation of Antigua. Agencies in India are left wracking their...
The draft Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018, produced by the committee headed by former Supreme Court judge BN Srikrishna is a positive baby step towards data protection. This follows growing concerns across the world regarding how data of citizens is being misused by entities, both...
A curious and somewhat critical scenario has emerged in Assam following publication of the second and final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC). Pleas of over 40 lakh people out of the over 2.30 crore applications for citizenship or regularisation of stay have...
Democracy reasserted its role in Pakistan through the Parliamentary elections, giving a rare chance for smooth transition of power in a country plagued by constant political upheavals, some of them terribly violent. The recent polls threw up a situation in which no one is a...
Mobs rule. And democratically elected governments, standing aside, watch the events as mute spectators. This ‘misrule’ is costing lives and paving the way for mass anarchy in India. Most recently in Alwar, Rajasthan, a mob lynched Rakbar Khan, alias Akbar, and left him for dead....
Last week, the Modi government had to bow to the opposition and defer the introduction of the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2018. The Bill sought to bring the Chief Information Commissioner and State Information Commissioners under the central government's control. Its passage would have...
In Estonia, every year, nearly 1,000 young men (between the ages of 17 and 27) pay the state a total of 1,50,000 euros in fines and penalties only to avoid serving conscription when called up. Additionally, the state makes more money on misdemeanour fines, and...
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has submitted a list of recommendations pertaining to the protection of privacy of personal data to the Department of Telecommunications. It is encouraging that the regulator has taken up a matter of vital importance in a data-driven and...
Karnataka’s chief minister HD Kumaraswamy is evidently caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. Having done some hard bargaining and appropriated the post to head a Congress-JD (Secular) government after the recent assembly elections, he has been balancing conflicting interests and doing a...
Every few years, India calls in its envoys for a reality check. At the 11th Heads of Mission Conference recently,...
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The growing tendency of different state police forces to cross jurisdictional boundaries in order to arrest individuals for their opinions...
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In the past, it was considered rather difficult to contest assembly elections without a recognisable chief ministerial candidate’s face as...
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The Pentagon’s announcement on 2 May to significantly reduce American troop presence in Germany marks a pivotal moment in the...
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