-The Hindu When a death sentence is given to satisfy the "collective conscience of the community," it raises troubling questions about the fairness of the trial The verdict of death for the bestial gang rape in Delhi last December is based on Supreme Court judgments, which stipulate that capital punishment will be imposed in "the rarest of rare" cases, where the community's "collective conscience is so shocked that it will expect the...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Several states want the Centre to foot the bill for all associated expenses such as transportation and commission to ration shops under the Food Security Act when it takes the credit for the scheme. Almost all states including Congress-ruled ones asked the Centre to bear these expenses which is estimated to be around Rs 10,000 crore annually. While most states represented by food ministers on Tuesday...

-The Hindu India's record of reducing hunger not good, admits NAC member Saxena About 842 million people, or roughly one in eight, suffered from chronic hunger in 2011-13, down from 868 million people reported for the 2010-12 period, according to the new State of Food Insecurity in the World, 2013 report released on Tuesday by United Nations food agencies. Interestingly, the agencies observed that while a vast majority of hungry people lived in...

-The Hindu These families have a far better child sex ratio than the urban Indian average Newly released census data shows families living in slums have a far better child sex ratio than the urban Indian average. Over a third of India's slum dwellers live in unrecognised slums. Over 65 million people live in slums, up from 52 million in 2001, but slum populations have grown slower than the average urban population over...

-The Hindustan Times In recent years, there has been a constant stream of international attention given to the Indian middle class. Thanks to the expansion of this class, India's image has dramatically changed since the 1990s. Instead of the narrative about grinding poverty, India is now seen as the heart of new capitalism that is associated with high rates of growth as well as the consumerist elite and middle classes. The...