-The Hindu Business Line The NITI Aayog should revive district-level planning in order to implement the 73rd and 74th Amendments to the Constitution While the Planning Commission, which was virtually an executive arm of the Union government, stands abolished, the District Planning Committee (DPC), a constitutional institution mandated “to prepare a draft development plan for the district as a whole” with a focus on resource endowments, environmental conservation, infrastructural development and spatial...

-PTI Actress Shabana Azmi today criticised Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis for brokering yesterday's deal between Raj Thackeray and Karan Johar while the Congress demanded his dismissal for aiding "extortion" of the film industry. But emboldened by its success, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena asked traders to "sacrifice" their business with Pakistan for the sake of the "nation", dismissing statements from cotton exporters who said the party's stand would affect the industry. Johar and...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: A seven-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court today took up for consideration the question whether the use of religion and caste in elections amounts to "corrupt practice", warranting disqualification under the Representation of Peoples Act. The bench, headed by Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur, during the day-long hearing posed several questions for which it has sought answers from various counsel appearing in the matter. The bench was...

-Livemint.com We don’t know enough about the socio-economic status of different caste groups, and our political class doesn’t want us to know Over the past couple of years, one Indian state after another has been on the boil because of caste-based agitations. The latest state to be engulfed in caste conflict is Maharashtra, where a stir by the dominant caste of Marathas seems to have led other backward classes (OBCs) and...

-The Hindu Framers of the Constitution were clear that we must move to a common personal law, the Union Law Minister says. Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has said the Centre’s affidavit on the triple talaq issue, which is being heard in the Supreme Court, was based on the principles of assuring gender justice, gender equality and dignity. The Minister stressed that the right to freedom of religion did not enjoin...