The State Bank of India (SBI) -- the only bank authorised by the Government to sell Electoral Bonds (EBs) to sold to individuals or other entities to be given to political parties as a means to fund their poll activity -- has refused to divulge the identity and other details of buyers under the Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act).

A civil society-sponsored convention, concluded ahead of the high-profile AIIB (Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank) board meet, to take place on June 25-26 in Mumbai, has sharply criticized the "China-led" international financial institution (IFI), insisting, it "rejects" AIIB claim that it "serves as a healthy and essential alternative to undemocratic IFIs such as the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and International Finance Corporation which are controlled by western powers."

Close on the heels of a series of reports on starvation deaths Jharkhand, the Right to Food Campaign (RFC) has revealed that over the past year, at least 20 persons have succumbed to starvation across the country – 12 in Jharkhand, three in Karnataka, three in Uttar Pradesh and two in Odisha. The deceased range from 11-year-old Santoshi Kumari to 67-year-old Etwariya Devi.

Protest against the POSCO project in Jagatsinghpur, Odisha A recent research study has said that of the “75 cases of conflict over land use change” involving 7,28,673 hectares (ha) “officially transferred through environmental clearance process”, in as many of 70 conflicts have remained unresolved even today. The projects have been chosen out of a list of environmental clearances granted to 14,498 projects, uploaded on the Union environment ministry’s website as of October 2017.

Nalanda mahavihara Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his  new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Loan disbursal in 2017-18 Contrary to the claim by India's saffron rulers, who recently said that 55% of all accounts opened under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY or the Prime Minister’s Small Business Finance Scheme) belong to individuals from scheduled castes (SC), scheduled tribes (ST) and other backward classes (OBC), a top data analysis site has revealed that it is the general category which gained the most.

Has the hype around Direct Bank Transfer (DBT), created by the Government of India, in order to provide cash subsidy in banks to the beneficiaries of Central and state schemes, beginning to fade into the oblivion? It would seem so, if a recent report, “Social Audit of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) for Food Subsidy Pilot in Nagri, Ranchi, Jharkhand”, is any indication.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has "lost" yet another topnotch economist, Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) with the Union finance ministry, Arvind Subramanian. Following Arvind Panagariya, who quit the Modi establishment in August 2017 reportedly over excessive bureaucratic interference, Subramanian has resigned, citing "personal" reasons.

Bidar Fort, Karnataka A well-known commentator on current affairs is all set to create a ripple among India's policy makers as well as top scholars by pointing out that Indian history, as is being taught in our schools today, as also written in books, is "the history of the vanquished", and is "mostly a chronological scroll down of events in the Indo-Gangetic plain", treating south of Vindhyas with utter neglect.

"Eyeball to eyeball" ceremony at Wagah Ahead of his second India-Pakistan peace march, which begins on June 19 at Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad, and ends at Nadeshwar Mata, Nada Bet, Gujarat, about 24 km from the border, Magsaysay Award winning social activist and Gandhian Sandeep Pandey has come up with what he calls “alternative peace ceremony” for Wagah border.

 Ranking Gujarat No 1 in Composite Water Management Index (CWMI) for the second successive year, the Modi government's powerful policy-making body, Niti Aayog, appears to have left no stone unturned in order to "prove" how it has reached this drastic conclusion. One of the greatest "successes" it cites in this respect is --believe it or not-- Gujarat has "achieved" a 100% score in the ‘rural drinking water’ theme of the Water Index.

 There is an urgent need to address "past and ongoing human rights violations and abuses" and deliver justice for all people in Kashmir, who for seven decades have "suffered" a conflict that has "claimed or ruined" numerous lives, a report by the UN Human Rights Office -- the first-ever seeking an international inquiry into "multiple violations" in both parts of Kashmir, controlled by Indian and Pakistan -- has said.

  Stone pelting greeted activists associated with the well-known anti-dam civil rights organization, Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), on the state highway from Badwani to Nisarpur, near Rajghat, Madhya Pradesh, when they tried stopping three tractors filled with sand, allegedly being smuggled from the river. The incident happened soon after two of the activists, Rohit and Raja, tried calling the Badwani police station to visit the spot.

  By Our Representative India’s top civil rights organization, People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), has alleged that the Gujarat government’s ambitious Jal Sanchay Abhiyan, claimed to have been launched to conserve water during the coming monsoon by deepening lakes, tanks, reservoirs and constructing new check dams, besides desilting riverbeds and canals, is a nothing but “a fabrication to hide deep-seated corruption at the highest level.”

  National Fishworkers’ Forum (NFF), the apex body of fisherfolk across India, has rejected the draft Coastal Zone Regulation Notification 2018 (CRZ 18), released by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) on April 18, even as holding National Day of Protest on June 11 against it by representing before the collectors of the country's coastal districts under the banner “Restore our coastline, secure our livelihoods”.

Gujarat may have suffered one of the most heinous communal riots in 2002, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was at the helm of affairs in the state. However, if a new survey, sponsored, by two philanthropic organizations, Tata Trusts and Lal Family Foundation, is any guide, 16 years down the line, Muslims in Gujarat are likely to trust the police more than most other Indian states.

  An 11-day-long march along the villages of Kosi river in Bihar, under the banner of Lagan Mukti Kosi Samvaad Yatra, which concluded on the World Environment Day, June 5, highlighted how the natural flow of the river has been "obstructed" because of the embankments on both the sides the river, supposedly as a flood control measure, pointing towsrds how it has caused havoc to the farmers.

  In a warning signal to the Government of India’s policy makers, latest Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) Consumer Confidence Survey (CCS) for May 2018 has suggested that in six major metropolitan cities – Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and New Delhi – 31.9% of households felt that there was an improvement in the general economic situation as against 45.7% in December 2016.

Thermal power plants A new American research has estimated that, out an estimated 1.04 million “premature mortality associated with PM2.5 exposure” per annum, 858,900 (82.5%) premature deaths could be avoided in case the Government of India and state governments implement a 13-point strategy, worked out based on what has been called Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. This would happen by a reducing PM2.5 pollution by 38.7%.

 A Sydney-based non-profit institute has ranked India 136th in its Global Peace Index (GPI) of 163 countries across the globe, a “slight” (one point) improvement over the year. The  report , “Global Peace Index 2018: Measuring Peace in a Complex World”, released by the Institute for Economics & Peace, has found, however, that except for Pakistan, all other neighbours ranked much better than India.

Nepalese transgender listed as male in citizenship certificate, 2011 By Our Representative One of the world’s top rights bodies, Human Rights Watch (HRW), has praised India, along with Nepal, for setting an example for “recognizing” the third gender. HRW’s South Asia director Meenakshi Ganguly, referring to a Netherlands court citing cases in India and Nepal, has said, “South Asia’s third gender court judgments” have set an example in in this regard.

Celebration on the 200th anniversary of Bhima-Koregaon victory In a surprise move, the Pune Police on Wednesday early morning, around 6.00 am, arrested several activists, imposing on them sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), which ensure long detention with added difficulties in obtaining bail. The arrests took place, purportedly, in response to the FIR registered on January 8, 2018 at Vishram Baug Police Station, Pune, with regard to the holding of the Elgar Parishad on December 31, 2017 by the Bhima-Koregaon Shaurya Din Prerna Abhiyan.

  A Peoples’ Court or Jan Adalat, held in Bhopal on culmination of week-long struggle, called Narmada Aur Kisaani Bachao Jung, has been told that efforts should be stepped up to ensure the natural flow of Narmada river is properly monitored and regulated at a time when several major and minor dams have been built on it and its tributaries. This, it was suggested, necessary to protect the river's ecosystem, which is facing severe strain.

  Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis may have  given in  to the demand of the state's striking farmers by announcing Rs 30,000 crore loan waiver, after 48 hours of agitation, but  facts  unearthed by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), New Delhi, reveal that insurance companies have paid just about 17% of the claims of crop failure.

  An Ahmedabad-based environmental group, Paryavaran Mitra, has alleged that despite "efforts" of the Gujarat to clean up Ahmedabad's highly polluted 20 km city stretch of the 80-km long Kharicut Canal -- constructed by the Britishers more than 100 years ago in order to provide irrigation support to 10,200 hectares in Daskroi taluka of Ahmedabad district and Mahemdavad taluka of Kheda district -- things are unlikely to improve.

  Passed in order to "expedite" land acquisition for the new Andhra Pradesh capital Amravati after the state government's "land pooling" scheme has come under  stress , the recent amendment Bill, passed by the State Legislative Assembly tweaking crucial provisions of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LARR) Act, 2013, is allegedly in line with the "directions" of the Doing Business Report of the World Bank.

Amidst an estimate, put out by the Vasantrao Naik Sheti Swavalamban Mission, that Vidarbha and Marathwada regions of Maharashtra have seen 221 farmers committing suicide between January to March 2018, an investigation published in a top research journal has said that "Vidarbha has another cross to bear" -- deaths due to toxic fumes coming out of pesticides they spray on their Bt cotton crop.

  Following a recent report in  The Wire  regarding Norges Bank (NB) deciding not to invest funds from Norway's Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) in the controversial Tamil Nadu company, Sterlite, "due to an unacceptable risk of complicity in current and future severe environmental damage and systematic human rights violations", a fresh investigation has revealed that it wasn’t the only Indian company that has been blacklisted.