-The Times of India Whichever way you slice and dice the data, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi's statement about causes of malnutrition in the state he has been ruling for over a decade is wrong. In an interview to the Wall Street Journal, Modi had said malnutrition exists in Gujarat because it is "by and large a vegetarian state" and also because it is a middle class state which is "more...

-The Economic Times Ram Kishen, 52, half-blind and half- starved, holds in his gnarled hands the reason for his hunger: a tattered card entitling him to subsidised rations that now serves as a symbol of India's biggest food heist. Kishen has had nothing from the village shop for 15 months. Yet 20 minutes' drive from Satnapur, past bone-dry fields and tiny hamlets where children with distended bellies play, a government storage facility...

-The Economic Times A presidential pardon can be a fraught proposition with the waiting time for death row convicts ranging from three years to 20 years. Gurmeet Singh from Pipariya village in Uttar Pradesh has been on death row for the last 20 years after being convicted for the murder of 13 family members. Twenty-six years since that dark night when he committed the crime, Gurmeet continues to wait for a decision...

-The Indian Express Ahmedabad : One of the goriest reports that emerged from Naroda Patiya after the riots was of a young nine-month pregnant woman’s stomach being slit open, the foetus pulled out, and the woman set on fire. Kausar Bano was found lying half-burnt and naked outside her house. As 32 were convicted for the Naroda Patiya killings today, her husband Firoz broke his silence of 10 years. “My wife who...

-The Indian Express Firebrand leader who rose swiftly till downfall She rose swiftly through the ranks, having made her mark as a firebrand leader who had saffron politics as part of her legacy. Mayaben Surendrabhai Kodnani, convicted of murder, conspiracy and spreading communal hatred, is the daughter of a staunch RSS worker who had suffered the pains of Partition, moving from Tharparkar in Sind province to Deesa in Gujarat. Kodnani, the first sitting...