-TheWire.in No rice for villages till MLA, commune commissioner certify them to be clean, said original order by the Puducherry L-G. New Delhi: Puducherry lieutenant-governor Kiran Bedi’s snap decision to stop the distribution of free rice to the poor in villages that have not become open defecation-free and continue to have garbage and plastic strewn around may have been an attempt to incentivise hygienic practices. But it did not go down well...

-Livemint.com India’s weather office has forecast a normal monsoon. Bountiful rains in the June-to-September period are critical for about 800 million Indians who depend directly or indirectly on farming New Delhi: Gangabhishan Thaware, a 53-year-old farmer from the drought-prone Marathwada region of Maharashtra, took an unusual step in July last year. Thaware and his fellow villagers had toiled on their fields and spent thousands of rupees on seeds and fertilizers, hopeful...

-Down to Earth Waste pickers recycle almost 20 per cent of India's wastes. Yet they are unrecognised, face discrimination and are not entitled to government schemes India produces about 5.31 million tonnes of waste each year and is facing an unprecedented solid waste management crisis. Coupled with an upward trend in industrialisation, rural migration, spending and an increasing propensity for capitalist consumption, the amount of waste generated in India will continue...

-The Indian Express Among the eight Northeast states, AFSPA is now applicable only in Nagaland, Manipur (excluding Imphal), Assam and parts of Arunachal Pradesh. Mizoram and Tripura reported no incidents of insurgency in 2017, the officials said. The Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) has been withdrawn from Meghalaya and its area of operation in Arunachal Pradesh has been restricted to eight police stations bordering Assam and three districts adjoining Myanmar, according...

-The Indian Express Death penalty for sexual offences against children is misconceived. Ordinance is doomed to fail Reactionary law reform has always been an easy way for governments to appear tough on crime, and the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 2018 is no different. It betrays a lack of thought on the likely impact, and only serves to endanger the lives of future victims. The five state reports of the Centre for Child and...