-Outlook Freelance journalists, especially in small towns, are paying dearly for speaking up Ground Down * Uttar Pradesh: Jagendra Singh burnt in his own house ‘by policemen’ after he reported against the state’s PWD minister * Madhya Pradesh: Sandeep Kothari abducted after reporting on illegal mining. Burnt body found in Maharashtra * Uttar Pradesh: Haider Khan beaten, tied to a bike and dragged in Pilibhit after reporting on land-grabbing * J&K: Javed Malik assaulted by...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Centre has proposed restoration of the provisions for "consent" and "social impact assessment" in the land acquisition bill, a climbdown aimed at wriggling out of the stalemate triggered by its bold attempt to liberalise the law resented by industry and which was seen to have slowed land acquisitions to a crawl. It is learnt the Centre would undo most of the contentious changes it brought...

A long-pending demand of civil society activists and NGOs, who are campaigning for probity, accountability, and transparency in public life, is going to be fulfilled soon. A welcome move has been made by the Government to enumerate and publish data on crimes committed against media persons, Right to Information activists, and whistleblowers in the forthcoming edition of Crime in India, which is published annually by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)...

-Tehelka If governance is his priority, Narendra Modi has to detach politics from welfare schemes. He has to ensure that the locals are treated as critical stakeholders It is a fight that has raged on for a decade. It is a battle to ensure that poor children and deprived pregnant and lactating women get a nutritious diet. It is a war to rightfully implement the grandiose central scheme, Integrated Child Development Services...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The just released socio-economic and caste census data show more than 1.8 lakh manual scavengers in the country at a time virtually every state government has been denying their existence. Hundreds if not thousands in almost every state, including 2,500 in Bengal, told the surveyors they manually remove untreated human excreta from dry toilets, railway tracks and sewers - a practice banned by Parliament 22 years ago. State...