-The Indian Express Haryana law on educational qualification for panchayat polls is discriminatory. SC must rethink decision to uphold it The Supreme Court has ruled that the Haryana Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Act, 2015, which mandates minimum educational qualification for candidates — Class 10 for general candidates, Class 8 for women, Class 5 for Dalits — contesting panchayat polls is constitutionally valid. The apex court must revisit its decision. The Haryana law...

-PTI A Parliamentary Standing Committee has termed steps taken by Delhi Police on improving women’s safety as “disheartening” and asked the force to chalk out effective and resilient strategies to combat crime against women instead of “shrugging off” its responsibility. The report of the 189th Standing Committee on Home Ministry tabled in Parliament on Monday took note of several steps taken by Delhi Police which included no harassment of complainant or victims...

-Outlook Recent studies point to two areas where NREGS has had an impact — rural education and Naxalite conflict. "Economics is haunted by more fallacies than any other study known to man."  This rather depressing assessment of the field is the opening sentence of Henry Hazlitt's classic primer, Economics in one lesson. In Hazlitt's view, most economists only measure the immediate impact of their policies. A good economist, Hazlitt contended, looks not merely...

-The Hindu Pune: In 2000, he led a campaign demanding entry for women into the Shani Shingnapur temple. The trail-blazing activism by rationalist firebrand Narendra Dabholkar, who was killed by right-wing elements, and his Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti (MANS) to combat the ban on women entering temples was a vital phase in the organisation’s untiring efforts to strive for Gender equality in Maharashtra. While the struggle commenced with the usual raucous noises...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Notwithstanding the 'intolerance' debate, lesser people have died in communal incidents this year as compared to 2014. While 86 people were killed until October this year, communal violence claimed 90 lives in the corresponding period of 2014. However, the total number of communal incidents till October witnessed a rise this year with 630 incidents being recorded as compared to 561 incidents in 2014. In 2013, when...