Dear Reader,
In 2014, the Supreme Court laid down the ‘Arnesh Kumar guidelines’, making it clear that incarceration should emphatically be an exception in offences that attract a jail term of fewer than seven years. Yet, Article 14 points out that imprisonment has been the norm in a spate of cases in the recent past – with the arrest of Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair being the latest in the pattern. “Police of two states and four different magistrates” seemingly violated the apex court’s decree, with no apparent consequences for them in these violations.
In Chhattisgarh, what began as an animal welfare scheme two years ago, through ‘cow dung procurement’ and ‘organic fertiliser production’, is creating a rural industrial economy which has increased rural earning capacity and bolstered livelihoods. ThePrint reports on how the state’s cow dung economy is producing – ‘mushroom and chocolate protein powder, lemongrass-scented artisanal soaps, ragi cookies and mahua squash’!
Swarajya looks at the role of the former Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated last week, in beefing-up India-Japan relations and laying the conceptual foundation for Quad -- a strategic security dialogue between Australia, India, Japan, and the US -- by postulating that the Indian and Pacific Ocean areas must be seen as a single integrated geopolitical theatre with common threats.
Recently, the US Supreme Court overturned the landmark 1973 Roe vs Wade judgement that made abortion a constitutional right. The Probe examines the situation in India and argues that while Indian women have the right to abort, poor understanding of the laws, social stigma and cultural biases result in women being deprived of the final say over their bodies.
For more such stories from the grantees this week, please read on.
Warmly,
Sunil Rajshekhar
IPSMF
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