-The Hindu The battle over the Narmada dam reflects a journey, a pilgrimage, and a recollection of 30 years of resistance. Numbers alone cannot make sense of it because it demands a different kind of storytelling If you were to ask a middle class person today what the most significant act of history in the India of the last 20 years is, most would say this — the rise of Narendra Modi....

-The Hindu The Union government has denied plans to develop a DNA database of citizens, similar to the biometric database of Aadhaar, as feared by many when the Human DNA Profiling Bill was introduced in the Monsoon Session of Parliament. In a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Y.S. Chowdary said the government did not propose to establish a DNA databank of...

-The Telegraph   The debate around Yakub Memon’s hanging highlights the many cases of people who were hanged but who should have lived. Indeed, the Supreme Court admitted in 2009 that it had wrongly sentenced 15 people to death in 15 years. Avijit Chatterjee looks at some cases   It was a mistake, the Supreme Court later said. But by then it was too late. Ravji Rao, or Ram Chandra, had been hanged to...

-The Indian Express According to sources, the authorities have taken strong note of the fact that Surendranath got involved in Yakub’s case without permission. The Supreme Court administration is contemplating action against Dr Anup Surendranath, who resigned as the court’s Deputy Registrar (Research) on Friday, after expressing his opinion that its decision in the Yakub Memon case amounted to “judicial abdication”. The court administration feels it was “gross misconduct” on Surendranath’s part to...

-Outlook Freelance journalists, especially in small towns, are paying dearly for speaking up Ground Down * Uttar Pradesh: Jagendra Singh burnt in his own house ‘by policemen’ after he reported against the state’s PWD minister * Madhya Pradesh: Sandeep Kothari abducted after reporting on illegal mining. Burnt body found in Maharashtra * Uttar Pradesh: Haider Khan beaten, tied to a bike and dragged in Pilibhit after reporting on land-grabbing * J&K: Javed Malik assaulted by...