The Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed the Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts (Amendment) Bill, 2018. It will designate some courts as commercial courts for speedy disposal of commercial disputes and will reduce the pecuniary jurisdiction of these courts from Rs. 1 crore to Rs. …

A GI product is primarily an agricultural, natural or a manufactured product (handicraft and industrial goods) originating from a definite geographical territory. Darjeeling Tea, Tirupati Laddu, Kangra Paintings, Nagpur Orange and Kashmir Pashmina are among the registered GIs in India. Mr. Prabhu said the initiative would help promote awareness and …

The European Association’s preliminary statement on reform proposals declines to pass summary judgment till the fundamental question of electorates is settled. The Association is not hostile to the principles of compartmental transfer of responsibility but considers that the Indian ministers are judgeable by the attitude towards the reserved rather than …

South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s four-day state visit to India early last month came at a time when Mr. Moon’s administration is seeking to upgrade India-South Korea relations. It was evident when Mr. Moon launched a foreign initiative called New Southern Policy last year that he had decided to step …

Talks between representatives of Syria’s Kurdish rebels and President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Damascus bring a ray of hope to hundreds of thousands living in the country’s north and east. After the talks last week, leaders of the Syrian Democratic Council, the political wing of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, …

The recent controversy about transparency in the working of the cadaver transplant programme in Tamil Nadu has provided an opportunity to revisit the vexed question of medical rationing in India. It is a hard reality that not all medical interventions are available to every citizen who may need it. The …

A relatively new anti-blasphemy party, whose leader has reportedly vowed to nuke the Netherlands should he ever come to power, did surprisingly well in Pakistan’s elections. Islamist fundamentalist parties fielded more than 1,500 candidates in Pakistan’s provincial and national elections that were won by Imran Khan. The performance of Tehreek-e-Labaik …

August 24 will mark the first anniversary of the unanimous affirmation of the right to privacy by a nine-judge Bench of the Supreme Court. The court imposed upon the government a clear obligation to make a law safeguarding a person’s informational privacy, commonly referred to as data protection. The right …

A Muslim woman from Uttar Pradesh’s Sikandrabad, who had filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking abolition of ‘nikah halala’ practice earlier this month, on Tuesday alleged that she has received death threats from her husband. The woman, Farzana, had claimed in her petition that she had been illegally …

When asked ‘what ahead’, Mr. Hajela said time has been given till August 7 for people to ascertain their names in the NRC. From August 8, those excluded can approach the Local Registrar or the NRC Sewa Kendras to find out the reasons for their non-inclusion. Their claims and objections …

India has welcomed the decision of the U.S. government to grant it the status of a trading partner equivalent to its closest allies in the NATO. This decision is likely to boost India’s defence trade with the U.S. The Ministry of External Affairs, in a statement, said it proved India’s …

Former West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi has been chosen for this year’s Rajiv Gandhi Sadbhavana Award for promoting communal harmony and peace. The award carries a citation and a cash award of Rs. 10 lakh. Sadbhavana Award has been given to Gopalkrishna Gandhi for his outstanding contribution towards the promotion …

The Supreme Court on Tuesday made it clear that it cannot direct doctors to perform genital mutilation of minor girls of the Dawoodi Bohra Muslim community and questioned the “scientific justification”, if any, behind the procedure. A Bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, which was hearing a PIL plea …

The water quality in the Yamuna has improved significantly due to a rise in inflow of floodwaters, and the river is at its “healthiest” this year, experts have said. The improvement in quality is largely due to the increased oxygen content in the water, which cleanses the river and helps …

Former Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has reminded the Sarbananda Sonowal government of the commitment to clarify its stand on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, “now that the updated draft of the National Register of Citizens has been published”. The complete NRC draft, published on Monday, excluded 40,07,707 people from …

The tenure of the Joint Parliamentary Committee examining the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 has been extended till the last week of the winter session of Parliament, when it is expected to submit its report. The Bill proposes citizenship to six persecuted minorities — Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, Parsis, Christians and …

The complete draft of the updated National Register of Citizens (NRC) has proved to be a great leveller, as it excluded people across the social spectrum — from daily-wagers and marginal farmers to soldiers and MLAs. Among the 40,07,707 people dropped from the list allegedly for lack of proper documents …

A delegation, led by Union Minister for Statistics and Programme Implementation D.V. Sadananda Gowda, met Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Harshvardhan in Delhi on Tuesday to urge him to take steps to retain the Research Centre and International Coconut Gene Bank for South Asia of the Central …

Coimbatore Corporation, which has been participating in the Central Government’s survey of ranking cities on cleanliness, is now gearing up to participate in its STAR ranking system, which starts from August 2018. Under the Swachh Bharat Mission, the Government’s Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has introduced STAR ranking to …

Union Finance Minister Piyush Goyal has written to the Joint Parliamentary Committee studying on the controversial Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance (FRDI) Bill, stating his intention to withdraw it. The Joint Parliamentary Committee has also reportedly given its approval for the withdrawal of the Bill, following which the government will …