-Outlook More than 9,700 cases of atrocities against women, including domestic violence and rape, have been registered since April one this year, with Uttar Pradesh seeing the highest number of such cases, the government said today. These many cases have been registered with the National Commission for Women so far this financial year. Giving details in the Lok Sabha, Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi said reasons for violation of women rights...

-The Hindu The US Trafficking in Persons report for 2015 said official complicity remained a “serious concern” Unveiling a closely-watched annual anti-trafficking report this week the U.S. State Department retained India’s classification as a “Tier II” nation for human trafficking concerns, which implied that the U.S. viewed India as a country that whose government did not fully comply with its Trafficking Victims’ Protection Act’s (TVPA) minimum standards, but was making significant efforts...

-The Hindu The Attorney General’s contention in the Supreme Court that privacy is not a fundamental right is disquieting in the context of the ongoing debate over the implications of the collection of biometric data from citizens. It is true that the AG was only replying to the question whether making people part with personal data was not an intrusion into their privacy, and saying that there is a need to...

A long-pending demand of civil society activists and NGOs, who are campaigning for probity, accountability, and transparency in public life, is going to be fulfilled soon. A welcome move has been made by the Government to enumerate and publish data on crimes committed against media persons, Right to Information activists, and whistleblowers in the forthcoming edition of Crime in India, which is published annually by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)...

-Economic and Political Weekly There has been a major change in the composition and mix of the cattle population in India. The proportion of male cattle has declined sharply as farmers do not fi nd it worthwhile to maintain bullocks to plough holdings that are becoming smaller and smaller. The composition of the milch cattle population too is changing. The proportion of the indigenous breed is falling and that of the...