The Guwahati molestation incident throws light on the violence women face overtly and covertly in India, at home and outside. The shocking incident of the beating and molestation of a young woman by a mob in Guwahati in Assam on July 9 has exposed the ugly underbelly of modern, globalised India, where women face violence, covertly and overtly, at home and outside. The incident has also exposed the lackadaisical manner in...

-The Telegraph Ranchi: The state government has failed to arrive at a formula to end the Nagri land imbroglio and will once again seek time from Jharkhand High Court during a hearing tomorrow. Sources said the state government affidavit, to be filed by the Ranchi district administration, would comprise details of two rounds of inconclusive talks with the villagers and will seek more time to resolve the issue. “We are pursuing the case...

-The Times of India A report released by the Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday said activists are threatened and attacked both by "Indian authorities and Maoist insurgents, who undermine basic freedoms and interfere with delivery of aid in embattled areas of central and eastern India".  In its 60-page report — Between Two Sets of Guns: Attacks on Civil Society Activists in India's Maoist Conflict — the rights body documented cases of...

-Tehelka The district administration in Karauli has undertaken steps to ban the practice after Change.org's Video Volunteers brought the discriminatory practice into light  When 39-year-old Sunita Kasera, a journalist for Video Volunteers, was sipping tea one hot afternoon in Dangariya village, eastern Rajasthan, she noticed something peculiar. Many women, who left their houses with their footwear on, would abruptly remove them in the middle of the road and wear them again after...

-The Telegraph The Centre today told the Supreme Court that neither the courts nor the Election Commission can de-recognise political parties for calling bandhs that result in large-scale destruction of public property. The Centre quoted a 2002 judgment delivered after the Congress had moved Kerala High Court against the CPI for frequently calling bandhs — complete shutdowns, which are illegal — under the ruse of calling hartals, which are optional. According to...