-The Hindu Lax monitoring, poor public engagement and inadequate training to vaccinators have dealt a serious blow to the crucial pentavalent immunisation programme The Pentavalent vaccine, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare's latest addition to the immunisation programme, has run into a storm. The Supreme Court has sent a notice to the Ministry asking why the vaccine should not be banned in the country. The vaccine is no stranger to controversy. A...

-The Hindu Equating juveniles with adult criminals is neither scientifically correct nor normatively defensible The August 31 verdict of the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) in the Delhi gang rape case, handing down a bare three-year custodial sentence to the juvenile member, has generated a fresh round of debate on the legality and desirability of juvenile justice itself: why should juveniles above 16 indulging in violent crimes not be treated as adult criminals?...

-Outlook The Centre today told the Supreme Court that securing Aadhar cards, being issued by Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), was optional and it has not made it mandatory for the citizens. The apex court, hearing a batch of pleas against decisions of some states to make Aadhar cards compulsory for a range of activities including salary, PF disbursals and marriage and property registrations, asked the Centre not to issue it...

-The Indian Express Bassikalan (Muzaffarnagar, UP): Rashid Ali was born in a family of relative affluence - he was one of the few Muslims in Lakh village who had a farm, cattle, a roof over his head, and food aplenty. Ordinarily, with the sugarcane resting in the fields, only to be cut a month later, September was a month of leisure. The rise and fall of the sun didn't dictate his...

-The Hindu The Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) will examine whether developmental interventions and constitutional safeguards - including Fifth Schedule provisions - have come to the aid of tribal people in Left Wing Extremism (LWE)-affected districts in central India. An NAC Working Group (WG) headed by tribal expert Professor Virginius Xaxa - who also heads the Prime Minister's high level committee that is to produce a report on the...