-The Hindu With every passing controversy, we’re learning to redefine our rights, says Baradwaj Rangan This is the story of two YouTube videos. The first one came up bare hours before I sat down to write this, and it featured an actor, a producer, a director announcing to a media gathering that he was now homeless in every sense. His new production, the one that had sucked up his life’s savings, still...

-PTI AHMEDABAD: Demanding justice, the kin of a 45-year-old tribal from Gujarat's Sabarkantha district has refused to perform his last rites and preserved the dead body for over 60 days. Jiva Bhumbariya's body was found at a secluded spot near Magwas village in December. Even though police investigations in Jiva's death concluded that he died in an accident, his family members have disputed this version, saying Jiva was murdered by three persons with...

-The Indian Express On the Delhi rape case, let’s keep the indignation, disturb legislative slumbers The Verma Committee Report (VCR) speaks against civil society and political rape cultures. The poignancy and urgency of the VCR owes much to the experience of conversing with rape survivors and traumatised children. A precious message of the VCR is this: one may not take law reform seriously without taking human and social suffering equally seriously. The committee...

-The Times of India KOLKATA: While the country celebrates the seventh anniversary of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), Bengal continues to be one of the poor performers. The Paschimbanga Khet Majdoor Union alleges that a group of vested interests, "comprising landed farmers, industrialists and a section of the intelligentsia" were working in tandem to subvert the positives of NREGA in the state. The union, which has criticized both the...

-The Business Standard Spending, workdays generated show falling trend in many states, Centre says reasons unclear The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme ( NREGS) has completed seven years since its launch. And, the number of people it provides jobs to has fallen, as has the number of workdays it has been able to provide. Analysts say this is due to a shortage of funds, especially in the less performing states. The scheme,...