-The Hindu Consent does not matter, says study A majority of parents who get their children married before the legal age do not even seek their consent, and among those who do, the child not consenting does not stop the marriage, new data has shown. In 2011, the Planning Commission selected the G.B. Pant Institute of Studies in Rural Development, Lucknow, for a study on child marriage in India. The 2005-06 National Family...

-The Hindu Providing people with a modest basic income instead of subsidies would save public revenue With oil prices falling, it was perhaps a good time to fade out fuel subsidies. All subsidies are inefficient and distortionary, and most are regressive. The same could be said of costly public works schemes as well. By contrast, the debate on direct benefit transfers has moved into a more sensible phase, with the posturing criticism of...

-The Financial Express The government has identified 46 million hectare of agricultural land spread across 122 districts that is likely to be adversely impacted by extreme weather events and cause decline in farm output, agriculture minster Radha Mohan Singh on Tuesday said. "Uncertain and erratic rainfall, delay in onset of monsoon, agricultural droughts, excess rainfall events and other extreme weather events during crop growing seasons may affect agricultural productivity and profitability of...

-The Indian Express Three members of a Dalit family in Maharashtra's Ahmednagar were killed, one of them decapitated before being thrown into a dry well in Jawkhede Khalsa village, on the night of October 20. The investigation is still on and the jury out on whether it was an act of caste violence or the result of a dispute. In recent times, however, it seems there is a surge in the...

-The Indian Express New Delhi: "This government is trying to snatch away our rights, of both employment and land. We have come all the way to fight such injustice. Several people in my village voted for this government hoping they would improve our lives but they are doing just the opposite," said Lal Singh from Rajsamand district in Rajasthan. At a time when the NDA government's proposals to bring changes to some...