-The Indian Express New crop insurance scheme is welcome. Its litmus test: Whether crop-damage assessment can be done within two weeks of the extreme weather event and compensation paid a week after that The Narendra Modi-led government needs to be complimented for taking the first major step to revamp the crop insurance system to address the increasing distress in Indian farming. With back-to-back droughts, and unseasonal rain and hail in certain...

-The Hindu More significant than the issue of whether women should be allowed entry into the Sabarimala temple is the question of whether secular judges ought to be the ones making that call. The more the state takes over the task of social reform, the less likely is the desired change to emerge from within the society Last week, the Supreme Court declared that it would hear a public interest litigation (PIL)...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The government expects at least 25 lakh vehicles, excluding two-wheelers, to go off the roads once it announces its scrapping policy for vehicles older than 15 years. Sources in the road transport ministry said the policy would be voluntary to begin with and the government would come out with incentives to encourage people to replace their old cars with new ones. The detailed proposal on scrapping...

-The Indian Express Rajan also raised the issue whether the RBI is taking a lenient view against malpractices in the banking sector and said there’s “a sense that we do not enforce compliance”. Is India a weak state which punishes only the small and weak? RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan who made some plain speaking to his colleagues in the central bank has said “the rich and well-connected wrong-doer” is virtually going scot-free. In...

-The Times of India DEHRADUN: Historian Ramachandra Guha, the author of The Unquiet Woods, a chronicle of the Chipko movement and its continuing relevance, threw his weight behind protesters seeking that the state government desist from taking over tea gardens in Dehradun for the Smart City project. He tweeted: "A looming land scam in the name of a 'Smart City' in my home town, Dehradun". He told TOI that the proposal...