-The Hindu   The absence of a comprehensive rehabilitation policy for surrendered militants has made life hellish for those who decided to give themselves up and join the mainstream Jammu & Kashmir's first "Surrender Policy" was floated by Governor Gen. (retd.) K.V. Krishna Rao's administration in 1995. It was almost identical to the policies introduced for militants involved in the North East and Naxalite insurgencies: Rs.1.5 lakh worth of fixed deposit receipts payable...

-Bloomberg The corpse of Indian farmer Bengali Singh burned to ash atop a blazing funeral pyre on the banks of the river Ganges in 2006. Five years later, the dead man was recorded as being paid by India's $33 billion rural jobs program to dig an irrigation canal in Jharkhand state. Officials in his village and the surrounding region used at least 500 identities, including those of Singh, a disabled child of...

-The Times of India A six-member CBI and income tax team has begun examining over 5,800 tapes of recorded conversations of former corporate lobbyist Niira Radia with politicians, corporate honchos and others. The team, headed by a deputy inspector general-rank officer, started going through the tapes and its transcripts running into 49 volumes last week as per the directions of the Supreme Court in February, sources said. An apex court bench comprising...

-The Times of India President Pranab Mukherjee has given his assent to the tougher anti-rape bill, bringing into force the new legislation which provides for stringent punishment for rapists and repeat offenders and makes provisions of strict punishment for offences like stalking, voyeurism, disrobing and acid attacks. Presidential assent to the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2013, came on Tuesday - just two days before the February 3 Ordinance on the issue was...

-The Hindu     The Opposition, including the Left Front, has demanded a thorough probe into the incident. Taking a serious view of the death of Students' Federation of India leader Sudipta Gupta in police custody, the West Bengal Human Rights Commission (WBHRC) directed the City Police Commissioner on Wednesday to probe the matter and submit a report within seven days. "The Commission has taken suo motu cognisance of the matter and directed the Commissioner...