-Livemint.com BJP’s U-turn on the proposed land Act reflects a re-balancing of deeper political forces that are at work in India’s political economy The recent U-turn by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government on the proposed amendment to the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (henceforth the land Act), can be viewed narrowly as a Congress victory in the ongoing tit-for-tat game that is short-changing...

-The Hindu The latest data from the National Crime Records Bureau show that it is time to change our understanding of felony and its registration by the police With every passing year of writing on the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)’s crime data, it has become increasingly clear that what I am forced to do is essentially compare apples and oranges, and then make a normative call based on that comparison. This...

-The Times of India HYDERABAD: Desperate to save the standing crop in the face of severe drought, paddy farmers have turned to the animal hormone Oxytocin to salvage the Khariff yield. Oxytocin, which is widely used by farmers in a bid to artificially promote growth in fruits and vegetables, has been banned for use in agriculture and animal husbandry.  According to researchers in Prof Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University here, paddy farmers...

-The Times of India BHOPAL: On October 6, 2011, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had sought the blessings at Peetambara Peeth at Ratangarh in Datia and launched the much-hyped 'Beti Bachao Abhiyan' all over the state with a pledge to protect girl child. Four years down the line Madhya Pradesh is top in the country in having maximum number of foeticide cases. In year 2014, thirty percent of the total cases of...

-Economic and Political Weekly The health ministry's move on HPV vaccine feasibility is ill-advised. The union health ministry has asked the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) to examine the feasibility of introducing the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine in the country’s universal immunisation programme. The NTAGI has been given three months for this task. The HPV vaccine, which is supposed to protect against cervical cancer in girls and women, is generally...