-Live Mint Notwithstanding the drought, farmers have preferred to sow sugar cane and rice instead of opting for less water-intensive crops such as coarse grains and pulses. The latest sowing data released by the agriculture ministry as of 16 August shows that area under coarse cereals and pulses is down 13% and 12.39%, respectively, from last year, while that for rice and sugar cane contracted only 3.57% and 4.53%, respectively. In the process,...

-The Hindustan Times The country is once again dangerously adrift in a stormy sea of competitive hate politics. The signs are both ominous and familiar — the systematic creation of hatred against people because of their ethnicity or religion; rumours and hate propaganda choking the internet; the public moral justification of violence against targeted communities on grounds of ‘larger’ alleged wrongs; and weak-kneed State action against people and organisations which preach...

-Rediff.com On July 14, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court commuted the death sentence awarded to six convicts in the Khairlanji murder case to 25 years' rigorous imprisonment. On September 29, 2006, a mob brutally raped a mother and daughter before killing them along with her two sons. Surekha Bhotmange (then 42), Priyanka Bhotmange (17), Roshan Bhotmange (19) and Sudhir Bhotmange (21) belonged to one of the three Dalit families...

-The Telegraph A global effort to create a vaccine against the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that has abandoned dozens of candidate vaccines because of unsatisfactory trials has persuaded India to join its new vaccine-design strategy. The Translational Health Sciences and Technology Institute, a government research centre in a Haryana suburb near Delhi, will set up a laboratory for basic research to seek out molecules that can generate antibodies to effectively neutralise HIV. India’s...

-The Indian Express At a time when the government is struggling to get past objections from its coalition partners to attract investment in certain sectors such as retail, aviation and pensions fund management, a grim internecine ministerial battle has applied the brakes on foreign direct investment flow into one of the more attractive and lucrative sectors — pharmaceuticals. Clearances for over Rs 1,000 crore FDI in this sector, the second largest in...