-The Hindustan Times A 26-year-old blogger’s seemingly novel approach to understanding the hardships of an average rickshaw-puller’s life brought him in direct, and apparently unsolicited, confrontation with the law at Delhi University’s North Campus on Friday. It was just another afternoon for Gaurav Jain, a Dwarka resident who works as a contractual rickshaw-puller as part of his research on their lives thrice a week, till he was intercepted and severely assaulted...

-The Hindu Governments, industry, civil society meetin Azerbaijan to discuss future of Internet India has decided to take a decisive stand on Internet governance at a conference being hosted in Baku, Azerbaijan, from November 6-9. An indication of the importance that India accords to the global dialogue on Internet governance is evident from the fact that Telecom Minister KaPIL Sibal is himself leading the government delegation, which will include senior officials like...

-Down to Earth Rice cultivation has led to waterlogging and soil salinity in Haryana’s Jhajjar district CASTE-BASED khap panchayats of Haryana are usually in the news for passing regressive and, often, controversial orders in the name of honouring social customs. But this year in January, the Jhakkar khap panchayat of Jhajjar district gave a rather unusual order in the larger interest of the farming community. It ordered that all the 36...

-The Indian Express Cutting across party lines, the BJP, NCP, CPI(M), CPI and BSP have told the Central Information Commission (CIC) that they should not be covered under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The Congress, however, has not made its views known as it skipped the hearing before the full bench on Thursday. The representatives of the political parties argued that since they already provide details to the Election Commission and...

-The Hindu Sequence of attacks on “well-known business units” suggests violence was not spontaneous Last week’s violence in Faizabad district during the Durga Puja procession which left two persons dead, several injured and dozens of shops razed, was executed in a planned manner and the targets had been selected, according to a fact-finding team and accounts by victims and eyewitnesses. The fact-finding team of human rights organisation Rihai Manch said the sequence of...