-Hindustan Times New Delhi: For a number of child beggars in the city, begging is a part-time job since they also manage to do street-vending and ragpicking. More than 57% child beggars stated this in a survey conducted by the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR). Even as police hint at an organised racket, this study on such minors reveals a sorry tale as 80% children were forced into begging...

-The Times of India With the introduction of a minimum educational qualification to contest panchayat elections, an overwhelming majority of the rural population in Haryana and Rajasthan rural population has been effectively barred from contesting. In Haryana the minimum qualification is matriculation for unreserved seats while it is class eighth for seats reserved for women and scheduled caste candidates. Census 2011 data shows that only 16% of the rural population aged 20 or...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal has asked the central government to increase wages under the national rural job scheme to at least Rs 300 a day to attract workers, a view apparently shared by many states as well as activists. An official in the rural development ministry said many state governments had already written to the Centre citing difficulties in implementing the MGNREGA because of the low...

-Business Standard Monsoon starts withdrawing from northwest, complicating projections for kharif output Monsoon has started withdrawing from the northwestern region of the country, India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Friday. “The southwest monsoon has withdrawn from western parts of Rajasthan,” the department said. The conditions are favourable for further withdrawal of the monsoon from northwest India in the next three-four days, it added. According to economists, it is too early to predict the impact...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: An advertising industry watchdog, alerted by a doctor, has described as "misleading" and "unsubstantiated" a water purifier advertisement that claims the product is the first choice of a doctor and yields the purest water. The advertisement by Kent RO Systems, which features Hema Malini, describes one of its purifiers as "Doctor's 1st choice RO Purifier" and carries the line " sabse shudh paani" (the purest water). A senior official...