-Livemint.com The latest addition takes the total number of drought-affected talukas to 110, out of 177 talukas in the state Bengaluru: The Karnataka government on Wednesday declared 42 more talukas or administrative units as drought-affected. The latest addition takes the total number of drought-affected talukas to 110 (68 were announced drought-affected last week). There are 177 talukas in Karnataka across 30 districts. T.B. Jayachandra, law and parliamentary affairs minister of Karnataka, said that...

-The Hindu The next biggest cause of deaths was chronic respiratory diseases. Chennai: In 2015, India, like other developed countries, had more number of deaths caused by non-communicable diseases. In the case of males, deaths due to non-communicable diseases (3.6 million) were more than double that were caused by communicable diseases (1.5 million), while it was nearly double in females (2.7 million due to non-communicable diseases and nearly 1.4 million deaths due...

-Livemint.com Courts are finally protecting individual liberty in prohibition and beef ban cases The politics of alcohol consumption and cow slaughter have, of late, run roughshod over issues of constitutional law and philosophy. The Patna high court’s recent judgement on prohibition in Bihar—especially when read together with the Bombay high court’s earlier beef ban verdict—is a necessary redressal of the balance. These judgements are a nuanced look at how the relationship...

-The Times of India New Delhi: A toilet that runs on solar power, has a water ATM to provide drinking water and vending machines for snacks and sanitary napkins: The city's first smart toilet, inaugurated on Sunday by the New Delhi Municipal Council at Rafi Marg to mark the second anniversary of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, has all that and more. NDMC chairman Naresh Kumar said the smart toilet design would be...

-The Hindu Business Line By allowing children to work in family enterprises, amendments to the Child Labour Act have made them more vulnerable to exploitation. Tracking the issue will be more difficult, writes Preeti Mehra When the two houses of Parliament put their stamp on a few amendments to the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986 a couple of months ago, they also signed away the dignity of children and the...