-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Days before final hearings on petitions challenging the validity of 'triple talaq', the Supreme Court sought on Monday the Centre's and four states' response on a PIL seeking a ban on the ritual of female genital mutilation (FGM) in the Dawoodi Bohra community. A bench of Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul issued notice to four central...

-The Indian Express We have been numbed by a series of lies, myths and fictions about the project. India is at risk of becoming a surveillance state, with faint resistance from libertarians, intellectuals, political parties, the media, or the Supreme Court. Very soon, almost everyone will have an Aadhaar number, seeded in hundreds of databases. Most of these databases will be accessible to the government without invoking any special powers. Permanent surveillance...

-The Indian Express Concept of torture alien to our culture: Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi New Delhi: From complaints of eroding minority rights and religious intolerance to the crackdown against NGOs, women’s rights to LGBT rights, Kashmir to Afrophobia — India’s track record on human rights came under sharp scrutiny at the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday in Geneva. Several countries expressed concerns on India’s FCRA laws, incidents of religious intolerance, women’s rights...

-TheWire.in After the government cancelled certain cesses that were meant for labourers’ welfare in preparation for the GST, activists suspect that many such moves may be around the corner. Assaults on the hard-earned rights of several categories of workers have been on the rise in recent times, evidenced by the cancellation of cesses meant to be utilised for workers’ social security. If left unchecked, such changes can lead to much bigger losses...

-Hindustan Times The Karnataka govt declared that only farmers who have a fodder ration booklet will be given subsidised fodder, a lifeline for the dairy farmers battling a crippling shortage in cattle food. Kolar: In the hinterlands of Karnataka that is battling a third successive drought year and increasingly parched lands, farmers have a new worry: Aadhaar. The state government has declared that only farmers who have a fodder ration booklet will be...