Dr. Kalpeshkumar L Gupta

Legal Aid & Awareness is crucial for sound judicial system of any country. Article 39A of Constitution of India deals with equal justice and free legal aid. Free legal aid helps the underprivileged to seek justice in timely and efficient manner. Various institutions, organizations, people are involved in legal aid and awareness initiatives touching different legal issues. Law students play crucial role in legal aid and awareness initiatives, being engaged with legal service committee/legal aid cell set up in law colleges/universities. Students volunteer for activities to be carried out under these committees/cells. There are handful colleges/universities in India which are having compulsory requirement of Pro Bono legal aid work as a part of academic curriculum. Gujarat National Law University (GNLU) situated at Gandhinagar, Gujarat is one of those institutions which requires 20 hours of Pro Bono legal aid work in an academic year which comes to a total of 100 hours in a five years course. GNLU through its Legal Services Committee (LSC) & Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) cell administer the Pro Bono Legal Aid Programme. GNLU initiated this policy in the year 2015 as an essential curricular requirement of the University. The major objective of introducing this programme is to encourage and motivate the students of the University to work for the society, offer their services under the legal provisions, which will help them bring closer to the society, besides helping them in their future career. Researcher will highlight the GNLU Pro Bono Legal Aid Programme as a part of case study supported by small survey on compulsory Pro Bono legal aid activities in law colleges as a part of academic requirement.

Right to Information Act (RTI) a powerful law enacted in year 2005 for better governance in the country. RTI law is backed by Article 19(1) (a) of the Constitution of India which talks about freedom of speech and expression. For proper usage of this right one should have proper information about the Public Authority. Public Authority carries wider meaning than only government. There are two objectives of RTI Act, 2005, one is to bring transparency and accountability in governance and other one is to setting up of Central Information Commission (CIC) and State Information Commission (SIC) to hear appeals and complaints. There are lot of peculiarities in working of CIC and various SICs. Some state commissions are performing exceptionally well whereas some are lagging behind. Most of the state information commission offices are facing challenges in terms of vacancies which ultimately leading to backlog of appeals and complaints. Second biggest challenge is appointment of efficient Information Commissioners who can dispose cases in effective way and in timely manner. There are Information Commissioners who have given landmarks orders and disposed off large number of cases. Thus we can see the role of information commissioner is crucial for successful implementation of RTI Act, 2005.
Present paper will critically analyze working of Information Commission at central and state level alongwith some important orders delivered by CIC and SIC.

Setting up a business requires many dimensions to evaluated whether it is in the country or in foreign territory. There are many dimensions like political, economical, sociological, legal etc. Without evaluating these, one will have to face dire consequences. Of course, changing environment can create hurdles at any point of time and one has to exist from there. More the hurdles, the lesser attractive the market will be. The regulatory environment is now the top issue that can have the most impact on a company, according to 400 U.S. CEOs across all major industries surveyed by Forbes Insights and KPMG (“Setting the Course for Growth: CEO Perspectives“). Thirty-four percent of CEOs are spending more time with regulators or government officials, or considering doing so (Moreno Kasia, 2014). A number of cases over the last few years – cancellation of 2G telecom licences and coal block allocation, retrospective taxation cases involving major multinationals and MAT notices to FIIs – too have made investors quite nervous (Singh Namrata & Mukherjee Shubham, 2015). Maggi Ban, Diesel Vehicle Ban are recent examples of uncertain business environment in India. India ranks 130 out of 189 selected countries in terms of ease of doing business, report published by World Bank Group. This shows India as less conducive in terms of setting up the business. There are various factors taken into consideration before arriving to this conclusion. There are factors ranging from starting a business, dealing with construction permit, paying taxes, enforcing contracts etc. India stands at 155, 183, 157, 178 for starting a business, dealing with construction permits, paying taxes, enforcing contracts respectively. Singapore, New Zealand, Denmark, Korea, Hong Kong, UK, USA, Sweden, Norway, Finland are in top ten list.

Present paper will highlight operation of multinational companies in India and supporting environment for it, easy of doing business factors, regulatory environment in the country, some selected judicial decisions.

All of us see the people doing manual scavenging very often. This situation prevails across the country. Many are doing it for years as their profession. Most of them are from scheduled caste, scheduled tribe and backward classes. They also inherit this to their family members. They are providing a crucial service to our society but they have been neglected in greater sense and many times we see them as untouchable which is prohibited under Article 17 of the Constitution of India. They have also right to live with dignity as guaranteed under our constitution. As per Article 46 of the Indian Constitution, it is the duty of the state to protect the weaker section of the society but it has failed to do so for these manual scavengers and their rehabilitation. Central Government enacted a law on Employment of Manual Scavengers and Constructions of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993 and The National Commission for Safai Karamcharis Act, 1993 but they were not properly implemented rather not at all. Looking at this dehumanizing practice of manual scavenging and failure of existing law, Central Government enacted a new law called The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 on September 18, 2013 which is still not being implemented.

Present paper will critically analyze the past, present and future of manual scavenging in India. It will highlight the legal provisions regarding prohibition of manual scavengers and their rehabilitation in India.

Good Governance is key agenda for any country without which no country can make further development. Many initiatives have been taken by central and state governments to fulfill the objectives of Good Governance. Right to Information (RTI) is one of the important tool to bring good governance in the country. RTI Act came into existence in year 2005 and it will be completing a decade this year. Aim and objectives of this legislation is to bring transparency and accountability in the Governance. The present act has succeeded in meeting its objectives to the some extent. There are some negatives aspects of this act like killing of RTI Activists, pending RTI Appeals/Complaints, vacancy in the office of Information Commissions, reluctance of government officer to provide information etc.
Present paper will highlight the journey of Right to Information Act in India, Gujarat. It will discuss the present scenario of RTI in India, Gujarat, latest development, role of NGOs, Civil Societies in development of RTI. Author is having practical knowledge of handling RTI matter for last six years, thus this will add value to the present paper.

It has been more than sixty years of management education in India. Different types of management institutions have been established in the country to impart management education. Looking at huge growth in management education sector, many management institutions have mushroomed in last one decade. Unfortunately many failed to maintain the desired standards which are required for providing good quality management education. Management Institutions completely ignored the stakeholder theory approach in providing management education, in another words they did not address the market expectations from the budding managers. They did not update the curriculum with the passage of the time as per the demand and need. This led to poor quality of management education in the country. As per authors understanding only 5% of the total management institutions in the country have succeeded in providing good quality management education.
Curriculum Development is the burning issues for all management institutions in the country. Present paper will discuss the present scenario of management education in India, issues and challenges mainly in the area of curriculum development, quality management education. Authors have taken Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) as a part of their case study as being Associates they are closely linked with the academic work in various programmes at IIM-A.

Access to Justice and Legal Aid are essential for efficient and effective functioning of judicial system. Article 39A of the Constitution of India also guarantees for equal justice and free legal aid. Government of India came up with exclusive legislation namely National Legal Services Authority Act, 1987 to fulfil the above objectives. National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) has been carrying out various activities at central level and at the state level through State Legal Services Authorities (SLSAs). SLSAs carry out activities through District Legal Service Authorities and Taluka Legal Services Authorities with the support of NALSA and the State Government. We can see that various legal services authorities initiated several programmes to meet the objectives of the law in force. On the contrary, some states and districts are not putting much effort for legal and awareness activities in their respective regions.

Now the time has come to introduce Legal Aid Index which will rank the state for their activities, different programmes in the area of legal aid and awareness. This ranking will add element of competitiveness among states in execution of legal aid and awareness activities.