-The Hindu In a rather unusual move, the Railway Minister, P.K. Bansal, on Wednesday announced an across the board hike in passenger fares less than two months before he would be presenting the Railway Budget for 2013-14. The hike comes into effect from January 21. However, Mr. Bansal declared that there will be no further fare increase in the ensuing budget. The new hike will range from two paise per km on basic...

-Open Democracy Were Ram Singh and his cohort simply claiming a notion of masculinity promoted every day by their role models in politics, business and the media? Ruchira Gupta writes of the steady creeping of a rape culture into the fabric of India, and what needs to be done to counter the idea that women are commodities Let us talk about Ram Singh, the chief rapist accused in the case of Damini,...

-The Indian Express Experts are divided over the stand taken by the State Education department to exempt the unaided minority schools from the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act 2009 while releasing the admission schedule for the academic year 2013-14. While some experts have termed the decision in contrary to the enabling provisions of the Act, others are describing it as in conformity with the Act. In chapter...

-The Hindu Business Line Indian society is yet to acknowledge the existence of rape culture – a set of beliefs that condones aggression on women. Perhaps no other event in India has received more international attention in the recent past than the brutal gang rape in Delhi and its tragic aftermath. The issue is widely covered in the Western media; the latest addition is the channel interview of the rape victim’s male...

-The Economic Times The government has decided to conduct a study on the implementation of the Right to Information (RTI) Act to know the cost to the government in providing information to citizens under the UPA's showpiece initiative and whether it has helped improve its "public perception about the extent of reduction in corruption". As per the RTI Act of 2005, only Rs 10 fee is required to seek information from any...