-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Narendra Modi government has strongly favoured retention of the capital punishment with the two government-appointed nominees submitting their dissent notes on the Law Commission's recommendation on phased abolition of death penalty. The panel, in its 242-page report submitted to the government and the Supreme Court on Monday, recommended abolition of death penalty for all crimes other than terrorism-related offences and waging war against the country. Releasing...

-Economic and Political Weekly While insufficient sanitation facilities often get represented in statistics and are reported in the literature on urban infrastructure planning and contested urban spaces, what is often left out is the everyday practice and experience of going to dysfunctional toilets, particularly by women. By analysing the practices and problems associated with toilet use from a phenomenological perspective, this article aims to situate the issue in the everyday lives...

-The Hindu Belagavi (Karnataka): At a time when a substantial number of small and marginal farmers are turning bankrupt owing to crop loss, non-remunerative prices for their produce, and inability to cope with the increasing cost of living, among reasons, a young progressive farmer has shown the way towards economic empowerment. Rajiv Malleshappa Rachannavar (34) of Inchal village in Saudatti taluk gave up education after SSLC. He joined his father in running...

-The Hindu Whether it was required of the Attorney General to question the citizen’s right to privacy to defend the legality of Aadhaar is indeed questionable as the constitutional status of this right has been decisively answered in successive and lucidly articulated judgments This piece seeks to contest the Attorney-General’s somewhat startling assertion before the Supreme Court that Indians do not have a constitutional right to privacy. This is the background. Posed the...

-Economic and Political Weekly The Indian weaver is dismissed in high places as an embarrassing anachronism, despite demand for his or her skills and products. In the new millennium, globalisation and a mindless acquiescence to imported notions of a good life threaten to take over, even as the West looks East for better concepts of sustainable living. Analysing today's crisis in the handloom sector, plagued by low-cost imitations from power looms,...