-Down to Earth While reorganising land rights for rural women may be an arduous and long-drawn task, alternative solutions can be adopted The United Nations observes October 15 as International Rural Women’s Day to highlight the contribution of rural women to the world’s economic development. Taking cue from this, the Government of India declared October 15 as Rashtriya Mahila Kisan Diwas in 2017. This was a welcome step, especially in the...

-The Tribune When a CM says: “Police encounters won't stop”, it implies that the Police will keep running into suspected criminals unexpectedly. The question is: Will these chance meetings continue to happen, or will they continue to be made to happen? A news item on February 16, 2018, said: "'Police encounters won't stop,' says Yogi Adityanath" .  Since it was a PTI story, most newspapers reported it. A dictionary describes an 'encounter' as...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Supreme Court's working strength would by year end fall to a low of 18 judges against the sanctioned strength of 31 if the government, locked in a standoff with the judiciary, continues resisting fresh appointments. Those due to retire this year include Chief Justice Dipak Misra (October 2) and Justices J. Chelameswar (June 22), Madan B. Lokur (December 30), Kurian Joseph (November 29), R.K. Agrawal (May 4)...

-The Hindu Doctors say there ought to be an audit of C-section deliveries in private and public health facilities In its new guidelines, the World Health Organization (WHO) has called for the elimination of the so-called ‘one-centimetre-per-hour’ benchmark — a rule of thumb that obstetricians use to determine whether a delivery requires surgical intervention. This is to counter what the body calls a “surge” in interventions such as caesarean sections that could...

-The Hindu A Supreme Court Bench will decide whether the law has to be interpreted expansively or in a narrow sense In July 2011, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government embarked on an ambitious project to rewrite the law on land acquisition. How the government acquired land from private parties had long been the subject of heated dispute, often resulting in violent conflict. Several previous governments had made attempts to amend the Land...