-The Indian Express The report recommended specific provisions in the ministry’s version of the transgender Bill, to safeguard their rights, protect them against discrimination, and provide quotas in government colleges and jobs. The Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has decided to junk the recommendations of a parliamentary committee report which was the first ever government document to recognise the rights of transgender persons to partnerships and marriage, so that they...

-The Hindu State government preparing its response to the model groundwater bill circulated by Central government The State government does not favour the idea of pricing groundwater for agriculture. The government, which is fine-tuning its response to the model groundwater bill circulated by the Central government, feels that the text of the model bill provides scope for the idea, which, if translated into action, will only attract controversies, says a senior official. Though...

-The Economic Times ARIYALUR: Everyone else may love a good drought, but not the victims who stare at a dim future. As serious drought looms large over South India, farmers live in distress and despair fearing a steep drop in acre age and yields. There may have been a few temporary measures by governments to compensate the dam ages, but that may be too little too late. ET's team of reporters walked...

-Frontline.in The British government, on the basis of an 1891 report on the subhuman living conditions of “Pariahs” by James H.A. Tremenheere, Acting Collector of Chengleput, assigned 12 lakh acres of land for distribution to the “depressed classes” of the Madras Presidency to empower them socially and economically. But more than 100 years later, much of this land is in the possession of non-Dalits, and the struggle to reclaim them has...

-The Times of India The President's approval to make Hindi compulsory in CBSE and Kendriya Vidyalya has ruffled feathers with most non-Hindi speaking states accusing the Centre of suppressing other native languages. Deputy leader of Trinamool Congress Saugata Roy alleged the move is meant to implement the BJP's majoritarian idea based on their slogan, 'Hindi, Hindu, and Hindustan'. "The Centre should have been more cautious before implementing the decision in non-Hindi speaking...