-The Indian Express The protests in Delhi are generating two sorts of anxiety. The spectacle of a spontaneous, unstructured, unavoidably vague movement borne out of genuine rage has unsettled the establishment. And it will respond the way it does: by recourse to the language of order. The second is a critique that the movement is misdirected: it is blaming government for what is, in fact, a deep social problem. It is...

-Outlook Madhepura (Bihar): Days after banning consumption of liquor, gambling and playing of obscene songs, a panchayat in Bihar's Madhepura district has again cracked the whip -- this time against those branding any woman a witch. The Mithai panchayat has decided to impose a penalty of Rs 2,100 on anyone calling a woman a witch, panchayat chief (mukhiya) Madhumala said. "We have taken a unanimous decision to protect dignity of our women in...

-The Financial Express   Bhim can't understand what he's done wrong.   Before dawn every day he joins hundreds of wholesale traders at Delhi's Azadpur Mandi, a sprawling, chaotic market where trucks blare Bollywood music, porters haul huge brown sacks of fruit and vegetables and hawkers ply tea and cigarettes. His own trade is in rosy red apples, laced with calcium carbide. Bhim says he's been adding chemicals to his apples for years to artificially ripen...

Consumption of spurious liquor has resulted in a series of deaths in several villages in Cuttack and Khurda districts of Odisha. On Wednesday, at least 29 persons had died and 50 others were critical in different hospitals across the districts. The casualties began on Monday as people started taking ill after consuming liquor from a vendor in Mahidharpada village in Cuttack Sadar area. Five persons had died by Tuesday evening. The...

While some may view the food security Bill as the instrument of combating poverty, this distinction belongs to the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, the flagship anti-poverty programme of the United Progressive Alliance government. The proponents of the food security Bill at the National Advisory Council have promoted it as the instrument of fighting widespread and rising hunger, instead. But what is the empirical basis of the claims of widespread and...