-Down to Earth New laws to regulate sand mining have not had much impact illegal sand mining is a perennial problem in India. But it assumes gargantuan proportions right before the onset of monsoon because swollen rivers make extraction extremely difficult during the rainy season. To make most of the lean period, mine owners and hoarders try to dig out as much sand as possible, through legal and illegal means, in...

-The Hindu Exception clause to the heinous offence of rape allows a man to have sex with his wife who is not aged below 15. The Supreme Court on Wednesday held that a man will be punished for rape if he is found to be guilty of havIng sexual intercourse with his minor wife. A Bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta read down exception 2 to Section 375 (rape) of...

-TheWire.in The K.R. Rao committee has only recently taken on board the views of civil society stakeholders, raising questions as to whether illegal mining and environmental issues will be properly addressed. New Delhi: A government committee in charge of revamping India’s 2008 mineral policy has belatedly agreed to rectify its industry-skewed composition by roping in several civil society stakeholders as ad-hoc members. However, according to multiple industry and environmental experts, it is unclear...

-Livemint.com For Narendra Modi, the protests involving hundreds of thousands of farmers highlight his struggle to deliver on the promises that swept him to power New Delhi: Anger over falling farm incomes has spilled onto streets across a swathe of India’s largest states as farmers struggle with food price deflation and a breakdown of the informal agriculture economy. For Prime Minister Narendra Modi—already grappling with a sharp economic slowdown and looming job cuts...

-The Times of India Farmers can't keep them, traders don't want to buy them, and gaushalas are full. The result: Havoc on farms and roads. Sunday Times travels across the country to find out how the population of stray bovines is becoming a ticking time bomb. The problem of stray cattle is not new in India, but in the last few months, it has reached alarming proportions. According to 2012 data from...