-The Hindu From now on, damage to crops due to extreme cold or frost will be considered a natural calamity and the affected farmers will be eligible for financial relief from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) or the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF). The Union Cabinet, at a meeting on Thursday, approved the recommendation of the Group of Ministers (GoM) on Drought to this effect. So far, crops damaged in natural...

-The Times of India Broadening definition of rape is a good first step, but higher conviction rate is a must The government's move to make rape a gender-neutral crime is a welcome step towards harmonising current anomalies in laws relating to sexual offence. The proposed changes are aimed at broadening the definition of rape, so far restricted to penile and vaginal penetration. The replacement of the word 'rape' with 'sexual assault', a...

-The Business Standard At a time when food inflation is on the upswing, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) working paper suggests it may not be as worrisome a factor, at least in rural areas. The paper says the rate of price rise in food items leads to lower income inequality in rural India. The reason is pretty simple: rural areas comprise food producers as well. Also, non-food inflation results in higher income inequality...

-The Hindu 8.1 million children are out of school, 42% are underweight India has slipped by 12 ranks in the global grading on the child development index, which denotes health, education and nutrition, between 1995 and 2010. Japan is the best place in the world to be a child, while Somalia is the worst, a latest report has suggested. The Child Development Index report released by NGO Save the Children makes an aggregate...

-The Hindu The Indian Radiological and Imaging Association (IRIA) has called the recent order of the Union Health & Family Welfare Ministry restricting radiologists/sonologists from visiting more than two clinics within a district to perform ultrasound tests and making it mandatory to specify their consulting hours at each clinic as “unconstitutional, undemocratic and ill-thought”. At a Press conference here on Thursday, IRIA president Harsh Mahajan said: “This latest order will create a...