-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Centre accused the Supreme Court of encroaching into the legislative domain while diluting the stringent arrest provision of the SC/ST ( Prevention of Atrocities) Act and appealed on Thursday for its restoration. The written submission by attorney general K K Venugopal on behalf of the Centre reflected the executive’s seething anger rather than a dispassionate analysis of the March 20 judgment, which introduced anticipatory bail...

-The Hindu The draft Forest Policy re-emphasises production forestry, raising many ecological and social concerns Government policy documents are statements of goals, priorities and strategies. If old strategies have failed or circumstances have changed, they should be revised. Given that our Forest Policy was last revised in 1988, changes are perhaps overdue. The new draft Forest Policy 2018, however, ignores the lessons from this period and returns to the state-managed forestry of...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Shantanu Lodh, a pioneer in performance arts, was in the prime of his career when he met with an accident two years ago which left him in a coma. When doctors couldn't get him out of it, and his friends failed to find someone to take care of him, they shifted him to Anandam rehabilitation centre in Alwar district of Rajasthan that provides 24x7 nursing...

-The Indian Express Booming Indian antelope populations threaten crops in many areas. Farmers are reluctant to strike against them, so the herds have only feral packs to fear. A couple of centuries ago, some four million blackbuck roamed the Indian landmass south of the Himalayas from undivided “Punjab to Nepal and probably in most parts of the Peninsula where the country is wooded and hilly, but not in dense jungle”. At...

-Hindustan Times Experts and government officials said the change would better capture the actual length of highways constructed in the country. Starting April 1, the government has adopted the so-called lane kilometre concept for measuring its highways instead of the traditional linear length method, road transport minister Nitin Gadkari said on Tuesday. Experts and government officials said the change would better capture the actual length of highways constructed in the country. The lane...