-Hindustan Times Delhi air pollution hit severe levels on Tuesday, prompting officials to shut down junior sections in schools and recommend a four-fold hike in parking fees as well as a cut in Metro fares. New Delhi gasped for oxygen on Tuesday as a toxic haze reduced visibility, affected flights and trains, and prompted chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to describe the national capital as a “gas chamber”. (Highlights) Delhi education minister Manish Sisodia...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Women and child development (WCD) minister Maneka Gandhi today suggested spreading awareness among schoolchildren so that they can complain about sexual harassment under a central law. Maneka made the suggestions in a meeting with HRD minister Prakash Javadekar held against the backdrop of the murder of a seven-year-old boy in Gurgaon's Ryan International School. The two leaders discussed several measures, including sensitising children to file complaints under the...

-The Indian Express The Delhi government’s decision to hike minimum wages by almost 40% gave hope to thousands struggling to make ends meet. But two months later, little has changed on the ground — be it for the saleswoman supporting her family, or the factory worker doing overtime. Sarah Hafeez investigates. Vinay, a 32-year-old bus driver, was both surprised and thrilled to hear that his colleague, a conductor hired by a...

-The New Indian Express KOLLAM: With Kerala facing a threat of the worst-ever drought this year, the state government is planning to kick-start a massive anti-drought campaign. The state was declared drought-hit in October 2016. The gravity of drought is such that it’s the worst one to have hit the state in 115 years. As part of it, starting February 1, the chief minister, revenue minister and the chief secretary will become the...

-The Hindu The interaction between people and land is as old as human evolution. When early hunter-gatherers started to settle down in the Neolithic transition and practise agriculture, they began to change their relationship with land in a major way. Starting with the Holocene, approximately 11,500 years ago, many plants were domesticated for agriculture. These and the associated social and technological changes led to dense human settlements that then paved the...