-The Hindu When a death sentence is given to satisfy the "collective conscience of the community," it raises troubling questions about the fairness of the trial The verdict of death for the bestial gang rape in Delhi last December is based on Supreme Court judgments, which stipulate that capital punishment will be imposed in "the rarest of rare" cases, where the community's "collective conscience is so shocked that it will expect the...

-The Hindustan Times In recent years, there has been a constant stream of international attention given to the Indian middle class. Thanks to the expansion of this class, India's image has dramatically changed since the 1990s. Instead of the narrative about grinding poverty, India is now seen as the heart of new capitalism that is associated with high rates of growth as well as the consumerist elite and middle classes. The...

-The Hindu Gram sabha at Taraimarh adjourned due to lack of quorum as villagers stay away Taraimarh (Chhattisgarh): On a wet and windy Saturday evening nearly 350 km north of the State capital, Raipur, a non-descript village registered a historic victory against Bharat Alumunium Company Ltd (Balco), an affiliate of India focused global miner, Vedanta. While the Dongria Kondhs turned up in large numbers at the gram sabha to emphatically reject Vedanta's...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Rahul Gandhi on Friday announced his emergence as the new Congress boss rejecting as "complete nonsense" the ordinance to save convicted legislators from disqualification. In a powerful intervention he sealed the fate of the contentious legislation, embarrassed PM Manmohan Singh hours before his meeting with Barack Obama in Washington DC and publicly rebuked the party old guard. "I'll tell you what my opinion on the ordinance...

-The Hindustan Times The Haryana government on Thursday ordered a chargesheet against 1991 batch IAS officer, Ashok Khemka for major penalty under Rule 8 of All-India Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules. Chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who is the competent authority in disciplinary matters pertaining to IAS officers on Wednesday, approved action against Khemka. Primarily, Khemka has been held liable of administrative misconduct - overstepping jurisdiction in passing orders to cancel the...