2021

by Santhosh Mathew
The South Asian Regional Cooperation also known as SAARC, is a regional cooperation comprising of eight countries i.e. Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. When SAARC was initially constituted in 1985, there were only seven member states however in 2007 Afghanistan was added to this regional grouping. The following countries have taken up observer status at the SAARC, they are China, Iran, Japan, South Korea, Mauritius, United (…)

by Ahmed Raza *
The beginning of a new controversy between centre and state administrative relations on account of recalling Chief Secretary of West Bengal for placement of his services with the government of India despite three months extension already given to him for serving with the state seems to be a politically motivated rather than an administrative decision of Government of India. The way the Department of Personnel & Training, (DoPT), Government of India has acted by (…)

by Chittarvu Raghu *
Ministry of Information Technology, Government of India issued a notification dated 25th Feb, 2021 in exercise of powers conferred under Sub Sec.1 & 2 of Sec. 87 of the Information Technology Act, 2000, framing rules titled as ‘the Information Technology (Intermediaries guidelines & Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. The Rules have come into force after the expiry of three months window period.
Rules 4(2) of the contemplates that a significant social (…)

by Avay Shukla *
4 June 2021
I am essentially a " dhaba " man. Give me a choice between a good, clean dhaba on a highway and a fancy restaurant and I shall plump for the former every time, even if you are paying the bill! This is not a reverse snobbishness, or my inability to decipher "Potatoes Dauphinoise" or " Coq Au Vin", but a conviction that there is no better return on culinary investment than what a genuine dhaba can provide.
I think I’ve acquired this trait from my dad, a (…)

AT-1 bonds are once again in news. This time for misselling issues and sharp sales practices. Over 97% of individual investors in the AT-1 bonds were existing customers of Yes Bank, and one-fifth of them prematurely closed their fixed deposits to invest in these bonds. It is alleged a large proportion of the investors were old customers with a low-risk appetite.
Issues of concern in such situation are: How far the principle, a golden rule, ‘let the buyer beware’, holds true in this case? (…)

PRESS RELEASE
Over 50 eminent international figures including members of several European parliaments academics, lawyers, Nobel laureates, civil society leaders, and diasporic organisations have signed a joint statement urging the Indian government to show compassion and responsibility in the current Covid emergency, and call upon the authorities to release all arrested human rights defenders into safe conditions in the light of the dire threats to their health given the spread of Covid in (…)

All India Federation of University and College Teacher’s organisation (AIFUCTO)
PRESS RELEASE:
PATNA
06.06.2021
All India Federation of University and College Teacher’s organisation (AIFUCTO) is extremely critical and expresses its strong resentment to the draft notification of UGC on 20.05.2021 on the blended mode of teaching and learning. It is most unfortunate that when the entire country is struggling with an unprecedented situation created by the Corona Virus, the UGC has (…)

Dear Friends,
On World Environment Day, farmers, consumers, environmentalists, sectoral groups held a press launch of the Global People’s Summit on Food Systems today, June 5, 2021. The Global People’s Summit is a people-led campaign for the radical transformation of food systems, to counter the upcoming United Nations Food Systems Summit and its corporate agenda. Stop Golden Rice! Network is one of the members of the Organizing Committee of the Global Peoples Summit.
Please find below (…)

Reviewer: Joshua Frens-String
Andra B. Chastain, Timothy Lorek, eds. Itineraries of Expertise: Science, Technology, and the Environment in Latin America (INTERSECTIONS: Histories of Environment). Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2020. 366 pp. $40.00 (paper), ISBN 978-0-8229-4596-3.
What events and historical processes should be considered a part of Latin America’s Cold War experience? Who were the Latin American Cold War’s principal protagonists? How did a decades-long (…)