-The Times of India HYDERABAD: Police have finally become sensitive to juvenile offenders and victims, with cops now being trained to be appointed as special juvenile police officers (SJPO) at law and order police stations. As per the recently published National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, the united Andhra Pradesh stood third after Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh in number of juvenile offenders sent to court. In 2013, the Andhra Pradesh police had...

The Business Standard The Planning Commission has not been central to the policymaking process since the mid-1960s In his Independence Day speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the end of the Planning Commission. There will be few mourners at its funeral, mainly old war horses like me. So this is in the nature of an obituary for an institution in which I served for a decade and a half, and where I...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The sarkari babu will have to make every minute count. The Narendra Modi government has ordered that an Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS) be implemented in all central government offices. A circular issued to all central government offices in the capital today has also asked employees, of all ranks, to submit their contact details (email ID, residential address, telephone and personal mobile phone numbers) to the department of...

-Financial Chronicle The United Nations declared 2014 as the International Year of Family Farming (IYFF) to recognise the importance of family farming in reducing poverty and improving global food security. According to the UN, the IYFF aims to promote new development policies at national and regional levels that will help small holder and family farmers eradicate hunger through small scale sustainable agricultural production. Family farming involves about 500 million families consisting...

-The Business Standard Monsoon revival saves standing crop but fails to fill drinking water wells, triggering acute shortage in some areas Jhunjhunu/Nawalgarh: Just opposite the highway leading to the Jhunjhunu district headquarters lies the hamlet of Pratappura. It is indistinguishable from the thousands of small dwellings that dot the countryside, but for the chasm between the upper and lower castes in this Jat-dominated area. The divide has widened after the sole source...