-The Hindu "Animal behaviour," was the unusual language the Supreme Court deployed recently. The context for the cryptic remarks was the gruesome lathi-charge on protesting teachers, predominantly women, engaged on contract by the Bihar government, and the attacks on a woman who sought police intervention in a case of assault. The police carry a long and ignominious record of resort to indiscriminate force to quell peaceful protesters, which peaked in the...

-The Business Standard Politics means sugarcane gets Maharashtra's scarce water The drought in a large part of Maharashtra, said to be the worst since 1972, may have been triggered by poor rainfall in the last monsoon season - but it has been compounded by mismanagement of the available water. Nearly one-third of the state's population living in the 15 drought-hit districts in and around the Marathwada region is facing a severe scarcity...

-Reuters Global drugmakers, battered by recent intellectual property decisions in the country, are girding for a landmark court ruling on Monday with broad consequences for their ability to sell lucrative patented medicines in the country. Supreme Court is due to decide on April 1 whether or not Swiss giant Novartis AG's cancer treatment Glivec deserves a patent in the country. "Big Pharma is nervous because nothing has gone in their favour in the...

-PTI HYDERABAD: A day after the Chief Minister remarked that observations of CAG were "not scriptures", the public auditor picked many holes in Andhra Pradesh government's budgeting process and financial management even as it praised the state for achieving fiscal reform targets. In its report on the state finances for 2011-12, the CAG rapped the government for failing to ensure proper utilisation of allotted funds, particularly on capital works, resulting in staggering...

-The Hindu The Sunday Story India's police forces are generally hostile and corrupt. They are also often brutal, as the recent beating of unarmed people in Tarn Tarn and Patna demonstrated. The Indian Police Act of 1861, a colonial relic, needs to be replaced with a law that befits a free country. The former Border Security Force (BSF) Director-General, Prakash Singh, refers to his favourite game of ping pong whenever he has...