-The Hindu Let us begin by listening to Mira’s story. When I learnt that I have been granted admission in the college of my choice, fear of being part of the “rest of the world” gripped me. Though confident about my academic abilities, I was terrified at the thought of how the “others” would react to me: a cerebral palsy wheelchair user with a speech difficult to comprehend and a drooling mouth....

-The Hindu Saturday’s violence by Muslim youth has shaken Mumbai. This is probably the first time that policemen have borne the brunt of the violence — of the 63 injured, 58 are policemen. What kind of mob has the guts to attack the police and think it can get away with it? A Muslim social worker has filed a complaint with the police against the organisers for instigating the public; a...

-The Hindustan Times With an eye on improving rural mobile telephony, the Planning Commission is mulling the option of providing free mobile phones to 6.52 lakh families living below poverty line. “We are exploring that possibility. We are working on an idea. The basic idea is that in the rural areas, we need to incentivize access to mobile telephony,” Plan panel deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia said on Wednesday. A scheme to provide free...

-The Hindu Rajesh Khanna may have immortalised a few lines that are easily recalled by everyone — “Pushpa, I hate tears” — but he will certainly not be remembered for his political speeches. Yet, one particular speech stands out in my memory. It was reported in the papers and it has stayed in my memory even though years have passed. In the speech, made in Calcutta during the 1989 general elections when...

-The Times of India A report released by the Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday said activists are threatened and attacked both by "Indian authorities and Maoist insurgents, who undermine basic freedoms and interfere with delivery of aid in embattled areas of central and eastern India".  In its 60-page report — Between Two Sets of Guns: Attacks on Civil Society Activists in India's Maoist Conflict — the rights body documented cases of...