-The Indian Express Curbing stubble burning is about inducing behavioural changes in farmers. Given that crop residue burning has an environmental footprint and poses health hazards, one needs to be cautious while evaluating the Centre’s policy to mitigate the crisis. But there is also an urgent need for such an evaluation. The Centre has allocated Rs 1,050 crore to the states where crop residue burning poses a pollution hazard. The Union Ministry...

-FIRstpost.com In the course of debates on gender-based violence, one aspect that is often hotly discussed is the role of the media in reporting such crimes. While media reporting can play a part in ensuring justice in some cases, it can also at times put the victim or her family at risk, or end up further stigmatising her. For this reason, the media is expected to comply with an array of laws...

-Scroll.in The former Delhi High Court chief justice chaired the committee that wrote a landmark report on the status of Muslims in India. There are many reasons to remember Justice Rajinder Sachar, who died in Delhi at the age of 95, on April 20. He was a former chief justice of the Delhi High Court, a civil rights activist proud of his socialist credentials, and a man whose instinct it was...

-The Indian Express After the Finance Ministry rejected the recommendations of two recent government panels, MGNREGA workers in 10 states will get no raises in 2018-19. Minimum farm wages are now higher in many states. The last time the union government brought MGNREGA wages at par with minimum agricultural wages was in 2009. Two years later, in 2011, only four states — Kerala, Goa, Haryana and Mizoram — had minimum agricultural wages...

-The Indian Express Muslims face rapid socio-economic decline. Yet, any move in their favour is made to look illegitimate In the current debate on the place of the Muslims in India, one variable has not been factored in — their socio-economic situation — as if the dominant repertoire had shifted for good towards the politics of symbols and identity. In socio-economic terms, Muslims are losing ground rapidly, even if their situation is...