-Economic and Political Weekly While insufficient sanitation facilities often get represented in statistics and are reported in the literature on urban infrastructure PLAnning and contested urban spaces, what is often left out is the everyday practice and experience of going to dysfunctional toilets, particularly by women. By analysing the practices and problems associated with toilet use from a phenomenological perspective, this article aims to situate the issue in the everyday lives...

-The Times of India HYDERABAD: Desperate to save the standing crop in the face of severe drought, paddy farmers have turned to the animal hormone Oxytocin to salvage the Khariff yield. Oxytocin, which is widely used by farmers in a bid to artificially promote growth in fruits and vegetables, has been banned for use in agriculture and animal husbandry.  According to researchers in Prof Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University here, paddy farmers...

-The Hindu The latest data from the National Crime Records Bureau show that it is time to change our understanding of felony and its registration by the police With every passing year of writing on the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)’s crime data, it has become increasingly clear that what I am forced to do is essentially compare apples and oranges, and then make a normative call based on that comparison. This...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: The Centre is working on a proposal that will enable it to make a quick visual response to wrong reports that appear on news television. The PLAn if successfully implemented will see the government's video response on the same channel refuting the report that was presented minutes ago. A rapid media response cell is the government's new idea to tackle 'critical and half baked' stories run by...

-The Hindustan Times The skyrocketing prices of onions, a key ingredient used in making dishes ranging from curries to biryanis, reflects India’s inability to insulate staples from weather-induced supply disturbances. On Thursday onions traded at Rs 4,900 a quintal (or Rs 49 a kg) at Lasalgaon in Maharashtra, India’s largest wholesale market for the crop. Inadequate supplies have pushed up prices sharply over the last few weeks. Already, retail onion prices have...