-The Hindu   The Supreme Court has expressed serious concern over fake encounters by the police and said “tolerance of police atrocities would amount to acceptance of systemic subversion and erosion of the rule of law”. Upholding the life sentence awarded to four Punjab Police officers who were responsible for kidnap and killing of a human rights activist, a Bench of Justices P. Sathasivam and B.S. Chauhan said: “Police atrocities are always violative...

The word ‘hunger’ does not appear in the 12th Plan Approach Paper even once, whereas according to the latest Global Hunger Index Report, India continues to be in the category of those nations where hunger is ‘alarming’. What is worse, India is one of the three countries where the hunger index between 1996 and 2011 has gone up from 22.9 to 23.7, while 78 out of the 81 developing countries...

The beneficiaries of the land reforms in West Bengal get pushed out of their land under the new regime. MOGHAI MUNDA is dead. No one is there to mourn him but his distraught parents and his young wife who seems to have lost her power of speech. But it is a significant death, even if it is ignored by the ubiquitous media and, therefore, by the world at large. Like the...

-The Times of India   Anna Hazare's anti-corruption agitation and the UPA government's poor handling of it have cost the Congress dear, shaving off one-third of its support while boosting the popularity of its principal rival BJP. An opinion poll conducted by market researcher Nielsen for a TV channel has found that BJP has gained a 12-point lead since May, when it lagged behind the Congress. Nielsen, which gauged support for different parties...

Ankaji Bhai Gangar, a 49-year-old subsistence farmer, stood in line in this remote village until, for the first time in his life, he squinted into the soft glow of a computer screen. His name, year of birth and address were recorded. A worker guided Mr. Gangar’s rough fingers to the glowing green surface of a scanner to record his fingerprints. He peered into an iris scanner shaped like binoculars that...