-The Hindustan Times Raipur (Chhattisgarh): Eleven women have died and dozens more are in a critical condition after a government-run sterilisation programme in Chhattisgarh designed to control the country's billion-plus population went wrong, officials said on Tuesday. More than 50 women are seriously ill after suffering complications from the surgery in Bilaspur district over the weekend, authorities in Chhattisgarh said. "Reports of a drop in pulse, vomiting and other ailments started...

-The Tribune Sangrur (Punjab): The number of patients facing respiratory problems has gone up in the area these days. The trend is being attributed to burning of paddy stubble in the fields by farmers. Doctors say the number of patients suffering from throat infections, allergic bronchitis, productive cough, asthma, itching and burning in eyes has doubled these days. Despite a Ban on burning paddy stubble, around 75 per cent of the paddy...

-The Hindu Terming death penalty a "cruel and barbaric" punishment used mainly against the "marginalised and poor", hundreds of eminent citizens, including Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, actor Aamir Khan, sociologist Andre Beteille, economist Jagdish Bhagwati and author Vikram Seth among others, issued a public statement on Sunday opposing the practice. Arguing that more than 70 per cent of the world's countries were abolitionist in law or practice, they said India "clings to...

-The Times of India VIJAYAWADA: Farmers in the proposed Andhra Pradesh capital region are putting up a strong resistance to the AP government's plans of land pooling as many of them were recently declared ineligible for farm loan waiver. According to the initial lists of beneficiaries circulated in local Banks, a majority of farmers in the region were declared ineligible for loan waiver thanks to new restrictions imposed by the government. For...

-The Hindu Reports that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government intends to radically restructure the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) have re-ignited public discussion on the scheme. Since its launch, debate on MGNREGA has been synonymous with ideological contestations on the role of the state and its welfare functions. Inevitably, the contours of the debate have been shrill, leaving little space for an evidence-based discussion on the...