-The Hindustan Times Recently, at a rally of gram panchayat chiefs, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar told the audience, “Improving the well-being of farmers is difficult unless agriculture sheds some of its population. At least one member from the farmer’s family should seek livelihood opportunities outside agriculture.” He has often made this appeal to farmers in Maharashtra, pointing out how rich industrial countries have a small proportion of their labour force in...

-PTI Court agrees to examine the whole issue at length   The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to examine the Centre’s plea that sex workers should not be allowed to operate in the country under the cloak of working “with dignity” as suggested by a panel, since that would be contrary to the statute prohibiting the world’s oldest trade. Appearing for the Centre, Additional Solicitor-General P. P. Malhotra told a Special Bench of Justice...

-The Hindustan Times The Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday backed the Bulandshahr district hospital staff a day after two ward boys were shown on TV giving injections and stitches to patients. Ayub and Shiva were caught on camera tending to the injured in the presence of senior doctors, triggering an outrage. A probe was ordered. On Tuesday, additional director (health) Vinod Kumar almost gave a clean chit to chief medical superintendent Dr...

-Inclusion.in There is good news. And there’s bad news. The good news first. There’s been a bumper wheat crop and the granaries are overflowing. And the bad news? Where do we begin? A lot of that grain will rot. Millions will still remain hungry. Heavily in debt and distressed, farmers are committing suicide. Food prices are soaring. There’s more… Farmers don’t have money. Their land is too small and isn’t yielding much. Fertilisers and...

-The Hindu The acrimony between the government and the opposition has worsened to such an extent that it has subverted attempts to reach workable solutions to practical problems The French sociologist and columnist Raymond Aron had pointed out that in English, there are two different terms, “politics” and “policy” whereas in his own language there is only one single term, “La politique,” to cover both. It is the same in German as...