-The Telegraph Nengkol (South Garo Hills): Twelve-year old Persus S. Marak was at home baby-sitting his three-year old brother when he heard an uproar from below, where the coal quarry was in operation. “I ran down and found one elderly man being brought up in the box...he seemed to be injured, but after that no one was brought out,” Marak told The Telegraph this afternoon, making a cup of tea for himself...

-The Hindu School Staff members offended by government circular asking them to avoid wearing indecent clothes A recent circular issued by the school education department, which urges teachers to be dressed in a “decent manner”, has evoked strong responses from teachers, who are offended by what they see as the officiousness of the message. The circular dated June 29, in essence, tells teachers: Please avoid wearing indecent clothes; it is important that you...

-The Hindu The population situation in Kerala is a fascinating area of study, says Dr. P.S. Nair, Professor and Head of the Department of Population Studies in the University of Botswana There are several billion reasons why each of us should be interested in the observation of the annual World Population Day (July 11). Kerala occupies a special place in demographic studies in India on account of it being the most densely...

Census 2011 data bring into the open Maharashtra’s terrible record in sex-selective abortions. In early June, Vijaymala Patekar, a mother of four girls, haemorrhaged to death at a hospital in Parli, Beed district, Maharashtra. She was reportedly in her second trimester of pregnancy. Her family had allegedly forced her to abort the foetus when they learnt it was a girl child. Sudam Munde, the doctor who performed the procedure, fled Parli but...

-The Hindustan Times   To get a driver's licence, what you have to counter is nothing short of a licence raj. Your mammoth effort will not be enough to get you the licence to drive on Delhi's roads. However, like in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, help is always given to those who ask for it. At transport department offices, this help comes in the form of touts.  Though the Delhi government had...