-The Times of India Two months after questioning the rationale behind commuting death sentences of five rape-murder convicts to life imprisonment during then President Pratibha Patil's tenure, a Parliamentary committee has now suggested that the mercy petitions should not be by and large considered for such criminals. Though the Committee is not in favour of completely knocking out the provision of mercy plea for convicts like those on death row, it wants...

-FeministsIndia.com Saluting Professor Lotika Sarkar who fought to make the country’s laws uphold gender justice and women’s rights Professor Lotika Sarkar who played a central role in several path-breaking and crucial legislations for gender justice and empowerment of women during 1975-2005, passed away at the age of 90 on 23rd February 2013. In the women’s rights movement, she was known as Lotikadee. When other stalwarts of women’s studies touched our hearts with...

-The Hindu   "To the women of India - we have a collective responsibility to ensure the dignity and safety of women. Recent incidents have cast a long dark shadow on our credentials. As more women enter public spaces...there are more reports of violence against them. We stand in solidarity with our girl children. We pledge to everything possible to keep them swcure. A number of measures are in the works...

-The Economic Tiomes Farmers borrowing crop loans from private Banks will also get government's interest subvention scheme, finance minister P Chidambaram said in his 2013 Budget speech. At present, farmers used to get crop loans at a subsidised 4% a year rate from public sector Banks, regional Banks and cooperative Banks if they repay in time. Farmers who repay loans in time, gets an additional 1% interest subvention from the government over and...

-Deccan Herald Bangalore: The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation has requested the employers to furnish the Aadhaar numbers of their existing PF subscribers to embed the information in the Bank accounts of beneficiaries.   The schemes of the EPFO involving transfer of benefits to beneficiaries have been identified for implementation of direct cash transfers from January 1, 2013. The Organisation has asked the employers to maintain the information in excel format till the...