Front Page/National

• Soil Health Card (SHC) scheme takes off gingerly: The SCH scheme is a flagship programme in the farm sector aimed at improving soil health and reducing input costs for farmers. A Soil Health Card is a printed report that will be given to farmers once in three years for each of his/her land holdings. It will contain crucial information on macro nutrients in the soil, secondary nutrients, micro nutrients, and physical parameters. The card will be accompanied by an advisory document on the corrective measures that a farmer should take to improved soil health and obtain a better yield.

• DoT’s Net neutrality panel offers a mixed bag: The government panel on Internet neutrality has recommended that mobile apps offering domestic calling be brought under the regulatory framework prescribed for telecom operators, but those providing messaging and international calling services over the Internet be kept free from licensing requirements. Net neutrality is the principle that service providers should treat all data on the Internet equally and not discriminate against, or charge differently, any website or service. (As an example, a mobile operator (lets say Airtel) can decide tomorrow that it will start charging data usage for one kind of app (lets say Flipkart) while continuing to keep a competitive app free (lets say Amazon). So, to shop online, Airtel customers will now all go only to Amazon, and slowly stop using Flipkart. If Amazon signs some kind of agreement with Airtel and actually makes this happen, Flipkart will go into loss through no fault of its own. And, some Airtel customers who like Flipkart more will now be penalised for it. This is a violation of Net neutrality).

• Cabinet nod to redevelop 400 railway stations: As an essential step to improve railways infrastructure, a proposal to redevelop about 400 railways stations in metros and major cities besides pilgrim centres and tourist spots has been cleared by the government.

Opinion/Editorial

• An avoidable tragedy: Read this to understand the measures that should be taken for crowd control, and how VIPs and common folk can both go about their business during crowded gatherings.

• Manipur’s dilemma: How far can the state go in protecting the rights of the original inhabitants? And when do these protective measures start affecting the right to travel freely and settle down in any part of the country? This is something to think about and the example is Manipur. (The state of Manipur passed the Manipur Regulation of Visitors, Tenant and Migrant Workers’ Bill earlier this year. The migrant communities in Manipur are nearly as big as the original ethnic communities. And the original ones see this propagation of “foreign” settlers as something that could eventually dominate the entire state over them, starting with dominance in land holdings. But the bill  failed to address this key concern of the localites i.e. protecting the land rights of the original inhabitants. So, they went up in protests. And after prolonged protests, the bill has been withdrawn by the Manipuri legislature).

• The power of pardon: An article about the arguments for giving clemency to non-violent drug offenders in the US, and what human issues and lessons India can learn from it. (Note that The Hindu is a very much pro-pardon newspaper, always advocating that mercy be shown wherever possible, including the death penalty).

• India, and the Taliban’s changing dynamics: The changing nature of the Taliban means dialogue with it can now be considered. India might at some point of time also consider opening of talks with the Qatar office of the Taliban. Must read.

• How do we start trusting doctors again: An article advocating the usual things, like reforms in MCI, impartimg of ethics education in medical colleges and the like. Nothing new.

Economy/Business

• Banks told to meet farm credit limit: The RBI has directed banks to ensure that their overall direct lending to farmers should not fall below the average of last three years (13.5%), as the Union government has expressed concerns over the impact of recent adverse weather conditions. The target for lending to small and marginal farmers have been recently revised to increase direct lending to agriculture.