-The Hindu SANGAREDDY: The crop fields of the women of Deccan Development Society (DDS), an NGO working for the last 25 years in Medak district, would be soon recognised as biodiversity heritage sites by the Government of India. This was announced by Dr. P. Balakrishna, chairman, National Biodiversity Authority (NBD), after formally launching 14th mobile biodiversity festival at Ippapally village in Zaheerabad mandal of Medak district on Monday. This would be the...

-The Telegraph The Supreme Court today ticked off police in three northern states for claiming no khap (caste) panchayats existed, observing that restricting girls from carrying mobile phones or wearing clothes of their choice violated the law. The apex court directed the khap panchayats of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to file their response on the legal validity of their functioning as “parallel courts”. “If a woman can’t wear proper dress, if girls...

-Pratirodh Bureau With the mercury plummeting, thousands of homeless people continue to bear the harsh winter in the absence of sufficient night shelters in Jaipur city.   A survey released by the People's Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL), which voluntarily monitors the condition of night shelters, claims that 40% of these shelters have improper bedding facility. Also, many poor are still spending night in the open due to sufficient shelters.   Here is the survey...

-The Times of India The government has said that it is not handing over monopoly rights to any entity for distribution of cash under the direct benefit transfer scheme. In response to a TOI article on December 30 ("Cash transfer plan a scam in the making"), the finance ministry said it has now standardized technology to enable customers to transact with any bank through any business correspondent. Earlier, a customer was locked...

-The Hindu Bangalore: The recent police crackdown in Ramnagaram on organ trading resulted in the arrest of a few middlemen, who were found to have lured donors to part with their kidneys for a pittance. But the arrests and investigations have not deterred the touts who run a thriving organ trade business right here, under the very nose of the city police. A team from The Hindu posed as relatives of a...