-The Indian Express Differences within the Cabinet over the proposed Amendments to rape-related laws were resolved Wednesday when a Group of Ministers recommended that the phrase “sexual assault” be replaced with the word “rape” in all laws, age of consent for sex be retained at 16, and a provision that provides for punishment for filing false complaints be done away with. The recommendations of the GoM, headed by Finance minister P Chidambaram,...

-The Telegraph Differences over proposed changes to the law dealing with rape prompted the government to refer an Amendment bill to a group of ministers today but the deadlock could not be resolved after the first round of discussions. The empowered group of ministers, headed by P. Chidambaram, is scheduled to meet again tomorrow and place its views before the cabinet on Thursday. The government is then expected to call an all-party...

-The Telegraph A government panel has recommended mandatory registration of all lease agreements and power of attorney documents to ensure revenue augmentation. At present, only lease agreements for a year and more need to be compulsorily registered. Registration of power of attorney documents is optional. If the proposal is accepted, it will mean that some of the ubiquitous 11-month rent agreements will lose their sheen. Some landlords prefer the 11-month tenure as registration...

-The Times of India The government is redrafting the anti-rape law following serious concerns raised by Cabinet members that the proposed legislation was loosely-worded and open to misuse, and did not account for new social realities of a growing women workforce and inadequacies of law enforcing agencies. The criminal law Amendment bill was urgently referred to a group of ministers after objections were raised at Tuesday morning's Cabinet meeting over the formulation...

-The Hindu PUDUCHERRY: The child sex ratio (for ages 0 to 6) in the Union Territory has fallen from 967 girls for every 1,000 boys in 2001, to 965 girls for every 1,000 boys in 2011. In order to improve this ratio, the health officials from the Union Territory will be meeting health and family welfare officials from the neighbouring States of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. According to a study conducted...