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Essential HuffPost
Humanizing the juvenile rapist in the Nirbhaya case risks turning him into a victim, and that's unfair to Jyoti Singh. The bleakness of this young man’s poverty is undeniable but it cannot become in any way an excuse for his crimes.
Reactive policymaking is no panacea for Delhi's pollution problem. The city's administration machinery deserves outright blame for aggravating, rather than reversing the primary stimulants that have made Delhi a "gas chamber".
We must design and develop our own defence technology in India, and shed our dependence on defence imports.
In a country where women have long been devalued, often with fatal results, it turns out that girls are preferred over boys among parents seeking to adopt a child.
Main News
Caving to public pressure, and the sentiments of the parents of Nirbhaya, who was brutally assaulted on 16 December, 2012, Rajya Sabha on Tuesday passed a law which will allow 16- to 18-year-old offenders in heinous crimes to be punished as adults, with the exception of the death penalty.
A Border Security Force aircraft crashed near the Dwarka in Delhi on Tuesday morning, killing all 10 persons on board including the pilot, co-pilot, and eight passengers.
As the government prepares to implement the amended Juvenile Justice Act and consider those above 16 who commit “heinous crimes” as adults, data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) show that Union Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi’s claim about juvenile crime being the fastest rising segment is only part of the story — as a percent of total crimes, juvenile crimes have remained static at 1.2 over the last three years.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has asked Reliance Communications to stop the Free Basics service of Facebook, at least for some time. Reliance is Facebook's sole telecom partner in India to offer a set of basic internet services free to its subscribers.
One out of two adolescent girls suffers from anaemia in India, which has the world's largest adolescent population. Besides, 30% or one of every three young boy in the country is also anaemic, putting a large chunk of the country's young population at varied health risks, a latest assessment by the health ministry along with Unicef showed.
Off The Front Page
In Mewat, which is part of the Gurgaon parliamentary constituency, panchayat poll tickets are being offered to educated women to lure them into marriage.
One of the markers of the ancient city of Varanasi, the roaming bulls that have for millennia been worshipped as Lord Shiva's mount — Nandi — have all disappeared from its mazy streets. They were ensnared and put away in a pound for a hassle-free stay of Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe earlier this month.
They are professionally qualified, speak English fluently and can work in any metro but they've chosen to be grassroots representatives in Jharkhand. Meet the women slugging it out in rural polls in a tribal state.
Swami Chakrapani, who successfully bid for a car belonging to fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim at an auction in Mumbai earlier this month, has said it would be burnt publicly in Ghaziabad near Delhi today.
Sachin Tendulkar, the absentee MP who has attended Parliament on 13 of 235 days in the 12 sessions since he joined, still has an impressive scorecard — he is diligent about his duties despite his no-show in meetings and the House.
Opinion
Mental capacity, not age, should determine if juveniles ought to be tried as adults, writes Aman Hingorani in The Indian Express: "While the juvenile law did need to be amended to cure the constitutional infirmity, the amended law will result in the same injustice as has been meted out to Nirbhaya and other sufferers, including minor victims of juvenile offenders"
Statehood for Vidarbha is a catch-22 situation for BJP, writes Sujata Anandan in Hindustan Times: "A separate Vidarbha now would mean the BJP would have to give up Maharashtra – the piquant situation here is that for the first time ever, a chief minister comes from Nagpur... the people of Vidarbha now see no reason why their region should remain backward without having to dissociate from Maharashtra."
India needs to rebuild relations with Nepal, writes Mallika Shakya in The Indian Express: 'Even if the blockade is lifted, following the MEA’s statement welcoming the new steps on the constitutional amendment, its effects will remain. We should be worried about the dangerous precedent set by the polarising politics of the border blockade."
Will we get swachh cricket this year, asks Anand Vasu in The Economic Times: "[E]very significant decision the BCCI takes goes through the working committee or the general body, both of which are staffed almost entirely by the same men who not just condoned the actions of Manohar’s predecessor, but participated enthusiastically and were more than willing to enjoy the benefits that accrued."
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