-The Indian Express   As indictments of the lower judiciary go, this one is pretty damning. Each and every sub-judge from Punjab and haryana who sat for the qualifying exam for superior judicial service two months ago has flunked. Only two — one each from the general category and OBC — of 148 lawyers who appeared for the exam passed. All candidates — lawyers and sub-judges — were cleared in a preliminary test of...

Two ministries concerned with rural development are at loggerheads over running of the government's flagship scheme- the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). The agriculture ministry is protesting the way the Rs 40, 000 crore programme is being executed, saying it has increased the burden on agriculture, which is showing just about two percent growth now.   "State-level studies by the Agro Economic Research Centres on wage rate, food security...

-The Economic Times   The sowing of rabi crops has picked up. According to information received from the Ministry of Agriculture, wheat has been shown in 171.2 lakh hectare against 169.47 lakh hectare last year on this date.  Area coverage of wheat compared to last year is higher by 1.73 lakh hectare. Higher coverage has been reported from Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and haryana.  Rice transplanting is in progress in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Odisha....

-The Hindustan Times The haryana Urban Development Authority (Huda) has relieved the local administrators of being the first authority for handling queries under the Right to Information (RTI) Act and shifted the responsibility on the estate officers (EOs), a move which has been opposed by RTI activists. The activists allege that the step has been taken with the "mala fide" intention of creating confusion and dissuading people from following up on...

-The Indian Express   Government of India statistics show that apart from being the national capital, Delhi is also the rape capital, with the highest number of rape cases (414) being registered in the city-state last year. Now, figures tabled in Parliament show, the city also enjoys the dubious distinction of being second-highest when it comes to number of complaints by women relating to police harassment and police apathy. While Uttar Pradesh leads the...