-The Times of India PUNE: The Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS) continued its agitation for a higher price for sugarcane crop for the second consecutive day in western Maharashtra. The protesters resorted to stone pelting and roadblocks and brought state transport to a halt in he region. While chief minister Prithviraj Chavan held inconclusive discussions with Raghunath Patil, the leader of Shetkari Sanghatana, another farmers' organisation, SSS president and Hatkanangle MP Raju Shetty...

-The Times of India Gujarat, which faced one of the worst anti-Muslim riots in the country barely 10 years ago, has emerged as the state with the largest number of Muslim cops posted in police stations, beating states with a higher proportion of the community in their population. The data, shared by the home ministry in response to an RTI query filed by TOI, shows that 10.6% of Gujarat's cops posted in...

-Mainstream Weekly Dr Binayak Sen, an internationally renowned medical practitioner and social activist (a leading figure in the People’s Union for Civil Liberties), was incarcerated in Chhattisgarh and held in detention in Raipur having been branded as a Maoist for his activities in defence of poor tribals in the State. He is now out on bail. The following is the text of the Arvind Narayan Das Memorial Lecture he delivered in...

Since early November, Delhi and large parts of North India have been enveloped in a thick, grey smog, sparking concerns and a debate on what is leading to the rising levels of air pollution. A January 2012 paper by Ridhima Gupta from the Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi is drawing linkages between the quality of air in the capital and agricultural practices during harvest season on farms in the neighbouring state...

-The Telegraph The Supreme Court today refused to stay field trials of genetically modified food crops for now despite a court-appointed panel recommending a 10-year moratorium, after the Centre said such a freeze would hit food security for a growing population. The five-member technical expert committee’s (TEC) interim report had advocated the moratorium till the country improved its regulatory system for GM field trials to ensure proper evaluation of these crops’ health,...