-The Hindu With clean energy access a high priority for India, we must look beyond kerosene, ensuring alternatives After the success of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)/cooking gas, the government has now decided to launch DBT for kerosene (DBTK), starting with pilots in the State of Jharkhand. While the move is well-intentioned, it may not be simple to implement at scale, and may even fail to eliminate the...

-The Hindu The overcrowding of prisons in the country is a long-standing problem that is seldom addressed effectively. Even though the Supreme Court has, from time to time, raised the issue of prison reforms in general, and that of overcrowding in particular, measures to decongest jails have been sporadic and half-hearted. The issue is once again in the news, with the Supreme Court bemoaning that prisons in Delhi and nine States...

-The Hindu “Fundamental rights and human rights of people, however they may be placed, cannot be ignored only because of their adverse circumstances” Blaming Delhi for paying “little or no attention” to the fundamental rights of under trials and convicts, the Supreme Court said it is “not only tragic but also pathetic” to find that prisons in the national capital, along with half a dozen States across the country, are overcrowded by...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Law Commission's exercise to formulate a Uniform Civil Code reached a critical phase as it asked the citizens to give their views on ending several religious practices and customs that had been branded anti-women in all three major religions. Sending out a list of 16 questions to gauge public opinion and the direction in which it should proceed, the Commission also asked whether to ban...

-Hindustan Times New Delhi: Hunger levels in developing countries may have fallen 29% since 2000, but India was still rated as a country with ‘serious’ hunger levels in the 2016, shows Global Hunger Index that was released on Tuesday. Despite improvements in hunger and nutrition over the years, India still has a long way to go before it is able to achieve the United Nations goal to end hunger by 2030 If hunger...