-The Times of India There was no let up in bad news for the government on the economic front. Amid the debate over slowing economic growth, data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Tuesday showed industrial output fell 0.6% in December, posing fresh policy challenges. This is the second successive month of decline for factory growth which has remained anaemic due to a string of factors including high interest rates,...

-The Economic Times The coal ministry, in an affidavit to the Supreme Court, has said that it has the sole legal right to allocate coal blocks even as the state governments own the blocks and eventually grant the mining leases. In response to the query of the apex court, which questioned the ministry's authority in this regard, the coal ministry said that though there was no express statutory provision, a combined reading...

-Outlook While great awareness has been raised about sexual violence against women in India, much less is known about the problem of sexual abuse of children' Summary The rape and murder of a student in New Delhi on December 16, 2012, followed by large public protests, has led to a great deal of soul searching about the problem of sexual violence in India. Politicians, lawyers, women’s rights activists, and an independent government...

-The Hindu Thousands of acres of uncultivable forested hills in Haryana, Gurgaon and Faridabad face the same prospect Gurgaon: Two decades ago when Sunil’s parents sold off 25 acres of their family’s share of land in the Mangar forests of Faridabad, they and other villagers thought the buyers were fools to buy it up because they were assured that they could continue to use it for grazing cattle and firewood. Today, 25-year-old...

-The Hindu The case of the juvenile offender in the Delhi gang rape is a wake-up call for investing more in a protection scheme that will stop children from turning to crime During the 11 years I worked with the emergency helpline service Childline, I have had the opportunity to befriend many children who live on the edge of society. Among them was 11-year-old Arif, who lived with a gang of boys...