he Supreme Court has refused to impose a nationwide blanket ban on sale of firecrackers. In its verdict today, the court said only ‘green firecrackers’ (which are less polluting) will be allowed to be sold. In its order, the court banned the online sale of firecrackers and put a stay on e-commerce portals from selling them. The court said only “low polluting” green crackers which are within permitted decibel limits […]

Contrary to popular belief, the #MeToo movement did not just begin a couple of weeks ago, when Tanushree Dutta accused Nana Patekar, or when a series of allegations against Alok Nath tumbled out. Or, when the playback singer Chinmayi accused lyricist Vairamuthu of sexual misconduct. The #MeToo campaign in India is at least a year old, if not more. It started when a dalit-bahujan woman, Raya Sarkar, put together a […]

The Sabarimala temple in the south Indian state of Kerala this week opened its doors to women of all ages for the first time after a historic Supreme Court ruling. However no women devotees have yet entered as violent protesters have blocked their way. Two women – journalist Kavitha Jagdal and social activist Rehana Fathima – managed to reach the main temple premises on Thursday. More than 100 policemen protected […]

At least 50 are feared killed after a train ran into dozens of people standing on a railway track in Amritsar, watching the burning of Ravan’s effigy this evening. The people who were hit reportedly could not hear the train – travelling from Jalandhar to Amritsar – due to the exploding crackers. Reports suggest the Ravana effigy was erected very close to the railway tracks at Joda Phatak in Amritsar. […]

With government interventions proving either too expensive or inadequate, Punjab’s farmers have begun burning crop residue, raising fears of pollution. As autumn sets in, farmers in Punjab have begun harvesting the kharif paddy crop and preparing the fields for the winter crop. And as has been the practice, despite official injunctions, paddy stubble is being set on fire, raising fears of a spike in air pollution across the northern States, […]

Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Nestle are among the companies that contribute most to ocean pollution with single-use plastics, according to a study presented on Tuesday by the “Break Free from Plastic” initiative. The environmental movement, launched in 2016, has helped clear the coasts of 42 countries around the world of discarded plastics. “These brand audits offer undeniable proof of the role that corporations play in perpetuating the global plastic pollution crisis,” […]

Taking his attack against Prime Minister Narendra Modi to poll-bound Rajasthan, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax, which he referred to as Gabbar Singh Tax, had destroyed India’s economy. Addressing a rally in Dholpur’s Mania area, Rahul said the prime minister had declared during elections that he wanted to be a ‘chowkidar’ but never clarified who he wanted to guard. The Congress […]

Google on Monday said that it has decided to shutdown its social media network Google+ after the company found that a bug in the social network had exposed the private data of its users to external developers which may have affected up to 500,000 accounts on Google+. The company has said that following an internal investigation in the issue, it has found that there was a bug in the software […]

Facebook Inc has discovered a security flaw affecting about 50 million user accounts which could have allowed attackers to take over the accounts, the social networking company said on Friday. Facebook has since fixed the vulnerability and informed law enforcement, it said. Attackers stole Facebook access tokens through its “view as” feature, which they could then use to take over people’s accounts. “View as” is a feature that allows users […]

The Supreme Court will pronounce an historical verdict on Friday on entry of women of all ages into the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple in Kerala. At present women in the age group of 10 to 50 are denied entry on the ground of menstruation. A five-judge Constitution bench comprising of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices Rohinton Nariman, A.M. Khanwilkar, D.Y. Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra’s verdict will determine whether the religious […]