-The Hindu The agriculture sector’s performance has not been commensurate with the increasing subsidised credit it receives Farmers on the warpath would mean that agriculture reforms have again occupied centrestage not just in the minds of the politicians but also policymakers. To enable small farmers to diversify their crops or improve their income they must have access to credit at reasonable rates of interest. This has been an agenda of the triad...

-The Indian Express Bihar order against criticism of government online is against governance. The Chief Minister must scrap it. The Bihar government’s decision to designate “objectionable and indecent” comments made online against the state government or its ministers, MLAs, MPs and officials as cyber-crime is one more example of elected governments abusing their power to buy themselves a Teflon shield against criticism, dissent and accountability. In November last year, the Kerala government...

-The Indian Express Hypothetically, if Ashok Kumar had been a conductor on any of the other 20 buses except the one the victim travelled in, he would not have even been an accused. On one of these bleak, foggy mornings that make for reflection, my mother wondered aloud how my life might have turned out if we hadn’t moved from Bombay to Delhi when I was a teenager. Not fundamentally differently, I...

-The Indian Express Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal claims more BJP leaders are set to join them in the coming days. Ludhiana: With no quick end in sight to the farmer agitation and talks with the government stalled, there is growing disquiet within the ranks of the Punjab BJP. Veteran leader and former BJP national vice-president Laxmi Kanta Chawla said Saturday that the agitation should not have been allowed to fester...

-The Indian Express Since 2016, the share of sexual crimes in the list of crimes for which trial courts are imposing death penalty has been steadily increasing. From 17.6 per cent in 2016, it jumped to 37.27 per cent in 2017, 41.1 per cent in 2018 and 53.39 per cent in 2019. New Delhi: Corresponding to the legislative expansion of death penalty for sexual crimes against women, more than 65 per cent...