-PTI Washington: United States has selected the 23-year-old Delhi gangrape victim for the International Women of Courage Award. The award would be presented posthumously by the First Lady Michelle Obama and the Secretary of State John Kerry, on March 8, an official announcement said yesterday. "For millions of Indian women, her personal ordeal, perseverance to fight for justice, and her family's continued bravery is helping to lift the stigma and vulnerability that drive...

-The Hindu As Marathwada’s groundwater table plummets to 500 ft, farmers here, as in other districts, are freely violating the law in a frantic bid to strike water. Mahadeo Mule has invested Rs. 1 lakh during the past five months to save his crops and livestock, drilling at five different points on his land, despite already having a borewell. He has also spent close to Rs. 35,000 on water from private...

-The Indian Express Samelia: Narayan Singh listens with rapt attention as social activist Shankar Singh urges villagers in remote Samelia in Rajasthan’s Rajsamand district to fight for their rights. Convinced that his voice would count, Narayan signs up to go to Jantar Mantar in Delhi to protest with 25,000 villagers, urban poor, rag pickers, daily-wage labourers to press for universalisation and enhancement of old-age pension. The issue concerns countless elderly poor who...

-The Times of India BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha governmentresumed land acquisition for the proposed Poscosteel plant in Jagatsinghpur district on Sunday, a day after three people were killed in a bomb blast in the project area. Official sources said government representatives demolished three betel vines at Gobindapur village, restarting land takeover after about a month. The work was done amid the deployment of about a dozen platoons of security personnel. Jagatsinghpur collector...

-The Hindu Activists allege needless spending Hyderabad: Members of United Forum for RTI (UFRTI) and Its Time to Make a Difference (ITMD) on Sunday demanded a high-level probe into the way the funds of Conference of Parties (CoP 11), the biodiversity meet hosted by the capital last year, were utilised. The members, while addressing presspersons, alleged that “unnecessary expenditure” was taken up by departments, including the police, GHMC, HMDA, APIIC, National Green Corps...