-TheWire.in A new report has recommended extending the scheme to all women, aged and infirm undertrials, claiming that it has many social and economic benefits for both the state and the inmates. A study on open prisons and parole practices in Rajasthan suggests that the “successful system,” operational in the state since 1955, be emulated across the country. The study, initiated by the Rajasthan State Legal Services Authority (RSLSA) and Rajasthan high court...

-The Indian Express Onion farmers have suffered even in a bumper crop year. Needed: Scientific storage facilities, a judicious trade policy. Onions are, once again, in the news. Last week, retail prices touched Rs 50/kg in several markets, and wholesale prices touched Rs 30/kg in major onion markets like Lasalgaon in Maharashtra. This is not the first time that onion prices have spiked. Almost every alternate year, this roller-coaster of boom and...

-The Indian Express The data analysis by the department indicated that high conviction rate was an outcome of reforms undertaken by the home ministry, led by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, in the past three years. Mumbai: Maharashtra’s conviction rate in 2015-2016 was 56.87 per cent, according to statistics released by the Home ministry. The data shows the state has made a jump in improving its conviction rate between 2013 and 2016. According to...

-The Times of India blog With the approaching winter the air quality in many Indian cities, especially in Delhi, becomes a public health hazard. Something so fundamental as breathing easy can no longer be taken for granted. It’s a wake-up call worthy of a civic revolution. For decades now those who could afford it (very much including this writer), have seceded from public services. The Indian elite send their children to expensive...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The law commission has recommended to the Centre compensation to victims of custodial torture and deterrent punishment that may include life imprisonment of the perpetrators. The recommendations assume significance against the backdrop of frequent allegations that police resort to third-degree torture to extract confessions and statements from the accused. The commission's report, authored by its chairperson Justice (retd) B.S. Chauhan, was submitted to Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad...