-The Hindu Most Dalits are not allowed entry into temples in villages; common crematoriums too are out of bounds to them, says activist. Ahmedabad: For the last three days, Gujarat’s Dalit community has been seething with anger over the public flogging of a group of Dalits who were skinning a dead cow in Mota Samadhiyala, a village near Una town in Saurashtra region on July 11. Four of them were brutally beaten with...

-The Hindu “I am extremely disturbed at seeing how women suffer when they travel by bus because they don’t have decent toilet options available,” says Mr. N.V. Vasudeva Sharma, who works in the field of child rights. Mr. Sharma has now decided to do more than just hearing the women out. He started an online petition on Change.org with a single signature. The petition, which has found 1,14,296 supporters now, will now...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Air and dust pollution from road traffic may be a threat to Kashmir's silk sector, already dogged by the lack of cocoon-processing infrastructure, declining production and farmers' abandonment of silkworm-rearing. Scientists at the University of Kashmir, Srinagar, and the Central Sericulture Research Institute, Pampore, have warned that traffic pollution may significantly reduce food consumption by silkworms and their capacity to spin the fibre. Field observations suggest that silkworms do...

-The Indian Express After Delhi, it is Maharashtra’s turn to attempt liberating fruits & vegetables from APMC shackles. Pune/ Vashi: Spread over 70 hectares land off the Old Mumbai-Pune highway, it’s a place where more than Rs 10,000 crore worth of fruits, vegetables and other farm produce gets traded annually. But right now, it’s also the scene of a prabodhan, a mass awakening campaign by traders and commission agents that could gather...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The road transport and highways ministry will install speed guns (equipment to record the speed of as well as film a moving vehicle) on national highways and deploy advanced ambulances with vehicle-cutting equipment on certain stretches for the immediate rescue of accident victims. Announcing the government's plans to crack down on speeding on highways, Union road transport minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said errant drivers will...