-Reporters without Borders Access the 2013 World Press Freedom Index here. After the “Arab springs” and other protest movements that prompted many rises and falls in last year’s index, the 2013 Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index marks a reTurn to a more usual configuration. The ranking of most countries is no longer attributable to dramatic political developments. This year’s index is a better reflection of the attitudes and intentions of...

-The Hindu The sixth accused in the December 16 gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student here, was on Monday declared a minor by a Juvenile Justice Board on the basis of his school enrolment records, thus paving the way for an inquiry against him. The sixth accused in the December 16 gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student here, was on Monday declared a minor by a...

-Economic and Political Weekly A cost-benefi t analysis by the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy of the benefits from Aadhaar integration with seven schemes throws up huge benefi ts that are based almost entirely on unrealistic assumptions. Further, the report does not take into account alternative technologies that could achieve the same or similar savings, possibly at lower cost. Reetika Khera (reetika.khera@gmail.com) is at the Institute of Economic Growth on...

-The Hindu One of the most prominent feaTures of India’s middle-class-driven public culTure has been an obsession about our GDP growth rate, and a facile equation of that number with a sense of national achievement or impending arrival into affluence. In media headlines, political speeches, and everyday conversations, the GDP growth rate number — whether it is five per cent or eight per cent or whatever — has become a staple...

-The Indian Express A day after The Indian Express reported that video clips showed police destroying private property and looting shops in the north Maharashtra town of Dhule during violence earlier this month, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said there were “some communal elements” in the state police too and this needed to be handled with great sensitivity. “I have seen the clips that you have written about. Unfortunately, there are some communal...