-The Indian Express The juvenile justice system should aim to reform, rather than punish, offenders The anguish and anger evoked by the sheer brutality of the gangrape in Delhi has led to the demand that the accused be subject to the most severe punishment. Voices have been raised seeking the death penalty and chemical or physical castration. As one of the accused is below 18 years of age and cannot be “punished”...

-The Indian Express Increasing frequency and intensity of protests reflect a deeper crisis in Indian democracy: the failure of civil society In the last five years, citizens have poured out in large numbers at Jantar Mantar and India Gate (and in many other parts of the country) to ask the state to hear their demands. In 2006, marches and sit-ins forced the state to re-examine the Jessica Lal and Priyadarshini Mattoo cases....

-The Times of India JAIPUR: Direct cash transfer scheme that was rolled out from January 1 this year in three pilot districts of Rajasthan is facing crippling absence of banking infrastructure and at this point it's anybody's guess when the banks can do their part to provide legs to the UPA-II's ambitious project. One of the pillar's of the project was to have banking correspondents (BCs) in the unbanked villages so that...

-Pratirodh.com If Year 2012 earned the sobriquet of “Year of Scams’ due to serial expose of “super social cop” Arvind Kejeriwal, and the year-end tragic death of girl in Delhi gang rape case reminded us about the most ugly manifestation of ‘Republic of Patriarchy’ in India, Year 2013 promises to be a game changer for the fortunes of welfare state in India as well as political fortunes of UPA-2.   If Narendra Modi,...

-Outlook The Supreme Court today asked the Centre why MPs and MLAs should be treated as "special class" in having different laws where persons with criminal antecedents are allowed to continue despite their convictions. "Why they be treated as special class? Why should there be different laws for them? Can Parliament make one law for its own members and other law for ordinary citizens?," a bench of justices A K Patnaik and...