-Hindustan Times A Dalit scholar at the University of Hyderabad killed himself on Sunday night, nearly two weeks after he and four other students were suspended by authorities and thrown out of the hostel, triggering charges of casteism. The students were on a protest strike in front of the hostel since the expulsion that followed an argument and scuffle between members of some campus groups and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad. That strike has...

-The Times of India DEHRADUN: HistoriaN Ramachandra Guha, the author of The Unquiet Woods, a chronicle of the Chipko movement and its continuing relevance, threw his weight behind protesters seeking that the state government desist from taking over tea gardens in Dehradun for the Smart City project. He tweeted: "A looming land scam in the name of a 'Smart City' in my home town, Dehradun". He told TOI that the proposal...

-The Hindu NAGERCOIL (Madurai): A nation-wide rally to eradicate manual scavenging was flagged off in Kanyakumari on Sunday. The 125-day rally was organised by the Safai Karamchari Andolan (SKA) and flagged off by its national convener Bezawada Wilson in front of Gandhi Mandapam in Kanyakumari. Addressing before flagging off the rally, Mr. Wilson said that the nation-wide bus yatra began in Dibrugarh city in Assam on December 10 and would culminate in Delhi...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Heavy losses in rural areas in recent elections have pushed the Narendra Modi government to re-launch its crop insurance scheme with changes to make it more farmer-friendly. The BJP has been asked to go all out to sell the scheme, renamed the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (Prime Minister Crop Insurance Scheme) to emphasise Modi's central role in conceptualising it. Three senior ministers, Rajnath Singh, M. Venkaiah Naidu and...

-Hindustan Times Bhopal/Sagar: When 39-year-old Ram Dwivedi shot himself with a rifle in Uttar Pradesh’s water-starved Banda district a few months ago, it came as a shock even to local residents in the drought-ravaged Bundelkhand region. In the past few years, most people who committed suicide in the area were either tenants or small-time farmers. But despite having 20 acres of land, Dwivedi couldn’t generate enough income to sustain his six-member family. Hit...