-The Hindu     Lawmakers are eager to appear resolute in the fight against crime, but seem to forget that certainty of punishment, not severity, is the real deterrent "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind," said Mahatma Gandhi. The death penalty is unjust and inhuman. Its continued use is a stain on a society built on humanitarian values, and it should be abolished immediately. Many think that there could be nothing wrong...

-The Hindu The rationale behind the Union government's decision to extend for four more years the Integrated Action Plan for naxal-affected districts in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, is clear enough. So is its timing, coming as it does days after the Maoist rampage in Chhattisgarh. Out of an annual allocation of Rs. 1,000 crore, each of the 82 districts identified...

-The Times of India GHAZIABAD: In a function here on Monday, UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav distributed laptops to about 8,000 students from Ghaziabad and Noida in the presence of senior party leaders. The students belonged to the first batch shortlisted in the two districts-including 5,598 students from 10 Schools in Ghaziabad and 2,476 students from five Schools in Gautam Budh Nagar-for receiving free laptops as promised by the party. Akhilesh was...

-The Business Standard NAC shouldn't have seen growth as the enemy of welfare For the nine years of the United Progressive Alliance government, the National Advisory Council led by Sonia Gandhi and including many well-known people from the corporate and non-governmental organisation world - mostly those with a left-of-centre perspective - has been the focus of much attention. The conventional narrative is that the NAC represented Sonia Gandhi's socialist instincts, and regularly...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Concern over the anti-Naxal policies not yielding desired results despite massive fund allocations and ambitious development schemes found voice at the meeting of the UPA coordination committee meeting on Monday. The discussion, held in the wake of a massacre of Congress leaders in Chhattisgarh on May 25, saw leaders pondering whether the government is getting it right in terms of its policy efforts and needs to...