-The Indian Express Among the eight Northeast states, AFSPA is now applicable only in Nagaland, Manipur (excluding Imphal), Assam and parts of Arunachal Pradesh. Mizoram and Tripura reported no incidents of insurgency in 2017, the officials said. The Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) has been withdrawn from Meghalaya and its area of operation in Arunachal Pradesh has been restricted to eight police stations bordering Assam and three districts adjoining Myanmar, according...

-The Indian Express An ordinance to overturn the Supreme Court order on SC/ST Atrocities Act is much needed The controversial judgment on the SC/ST Atrocities Act has yet again brought to the foreground the faultlines of our democracy. A cornered government, anticipating political repercussions, has moved the apex court for a review of the judgment. In its written submissions, it has stated that the judgment has created disharmony in society and violated...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The government's spending on the rural job scheme increased 10 per cent in the last fiscal despite a matching decline in the number of beneficiaries because of deletion, challenging claims that weeding out bogus card-holders helped cut down on expenditure and pointing to the lack of jobs in rural areas. After verification, the government struck off the names of 1.62 crore job card-holders under the Mahatma Gandhi National...

-The Indian Express As against this claim, the Reserve Bank of India's latest data shows that the public sector banks could recover a total of only Rs 15,786 crore in the fiscal year 2016-17 and 2017-18 till December 31 through all recovery channels, including IBC. The BJP claimed on its Twitter account on Saturday that the “Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), 2016 has resulted in recovery of Rs 4 lakh crore out...

-The New Indian Express Something remarkable happened when the farmers came marching to Mumbai recently. Instead of greeting them with hostility, Mumbaikars welcomed them with affection, food and water. This change in attitude was triggered by the farmers’ extraordinary discipline and their efforts to ensure minimal disruption to the Mumbaikars’ routines. Even hard-boiled journalists acknowledged, for a brief moment, urbanites had realised  our farmers and adivasis were indeed facing difficult times. The...