-The Telegraph The Supreme Court today ticked off police in three northern states for claiming no khap (caste) panchayats existed, observing that restricting girls from carrying mobile phones or wearing clothes of their choice violated the law. The apex court directed the khap panchayats of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to file their response on the legal validity of their functioning as “parallel courts”. “If a woman can’t wear proper dress, if girls...

The total expenditure on central schemes for the poor and on the major subsidies exceeds the states' share of central taxes. These schemes are chronic bad performers due to a culture of immunity in public administration and weakened local governments. Arguing that the poor should be trusted to use these resources better than the state, a radical redirection with substantial direct transfers to individuals and complementary decentralisation to local governments...

-The Hindu Business Line Indian society is yet to acknowledge the existence of rape culture – a set of beliefs that condones aggression on women. Perhaps no other event in India has received more international attention in the recent past than the brutal gang rape in Delhi and its tragic aftermath. The issue is widely covered in the Western media; the latest addition is the channel interview of the rape victim’s male...

-The Times of India The cold snap killed 15 more people across Uttar Pradesh on Friday, taking the toll from it across north India this season to at least 55. The fresh deaths were reported as the mercury dipped to just a few degrees above freezing point in most parts of the state. Kanpur was the coldest place in the region with a low of two degree C. Lucknow, with a minimum...

-The Hindu The Supreme Court has upheld the acquisition of 673.29 acres of land by the Haryana government in Panchkula district for the Kalka-Pinjore urban complex project. A Bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and S.J. Mukhopadaya dismissed a batch of special leave petitions and lifted the stay on the construction by several developers. The Supreme Court had stayed the project for over eight months. In its order the Bench said “it will not...