Former Australia captain Ian Chappell has proposed radical changes in the LBW laws, stating that a batsman should be given out leg before as long as the ball is hitting the stumps irrespective of the spot of its landing and impact. Chappell also said captains should agree on one way of working up the ball which will encourage swing bowling, even as the ICC is considering the use of artificial substances to shine the ball instead of sweat and saliva in post COVID-19 scenario. "The new lbw law should simply say: 'Any delivery that strikes the pad without first hitting the bat and, in the umpire's opinion, would go on to hit the stumps is out regardless of whether or not a shot is attempted'," he wrote in a column for ESPNcricinfo. "Forget where the ball pitches and whether it strikes the pad outside the line or not; if it's going to hit the stumps, it's out." The 76-year-old said the change in lbw law would attract expected criticism from the batsmen but it would make the game more ...

Superstar Rajinikanth on Sunday warned the ruling AIADMK against reopening state-run liquor outlets in Tamil Nadu, saying if it was done, it should not harbour "dreams" of coming to power again, apparently in next year's Assembly elections. In a tweet, he also asked the government to work out alternate modes of revenue generation. His remarks came a day after Tamil Nadu moved the Supreme Court, seeking a stay against a Madras High Court order directing closure of liquor shops in the state. The AIADMK cannot have "dreams of coming to power again if the government re-opens TASMAC shops at this juncture," the veteran said in the tweet. "Please #Look out for better ways of filling the coffers," he added. The Tamil Nadu government had on Saturday moved the apex court challenging the High Court order for closure of TASMAC (Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation) liquor outlets on grounds of violations of COVID-19 guidelines, arguing that it would lead to "grave losses" in ...

Uttarkashi on Sunday reported its first COVID-19 case, raising Uttarakhand's coronavirus tally to 68. Uttarkashi district falls in the green zone.The red, orange and green zone classification is based on the number of coronavirus cases, doubling rate of coronavirus cases, and the extent of testing and surveillance The man, who tested positive, hails from Dhanaripatti village in Dunda block and had returned recently from Surat in Gujarat, Chief Medical Officer DP Joshi said. Three persons who came along with him in separate two wheelers from Gujarat have been kept in isolation, he said, adding contact tracing is underway. The 32-year-old man's swab sample was tested at AIIMS, Rishikesh, Joshi said.

For decades, there have been concerns that India's universities were being bogged down by the number of institutes they had to manage. Recently, the University Grants Commission accepted in principle that autonomy must be green-lighted. But debates on the freedom of institutions remain inconclusive, reports Deepa A.

Public funded non-formal education has been in vogue in India from the 1970s. While NFE centres were meant to be a special bridge for underprivileged children to get back to mainstream schools, many are bereft of infrastructure, pay teachers less and teach students little. Deepa A investigates.

Citizen participation is important not just for inspiring goals, but simply to create a society where governments gain and hold the confidence of the people.

The new government's candour that meaningful reforms must permeate into the institutions beyond the budgetary process itself is a start. The India Together editorial.

Is a nationwide employment guarantee for the rural poor really unaffordable? No. But neither our ideologies nor our governments rank such an entitlement very highly. The Centre has instead proposed a watered down guarantee, without actually providing it. The India Together editorial.

Most public matters before judges are simply 'in court', and not necessarily sub judice to the extent that voicing one's views about them publicly would merit contempt charges. The courts should recognise the distinction formally, with a clear standard for separating the two. The India Together editorial.

Ruth Manorama is a women's rights activist well known for her contribution in mainstreaming Dalit issues. Herself from the Dalit community, she has helped throw the spotlight on the precarious situation of Dalit women in India. She calls them "Dalits among the Dalits." A peacewomen profile from the Women's Feature Service and Sangat.

Indra Chopra looks at the dowry custom cloaked within current-day marriages.

Women born into a Bedia family remain unmarried. They engage in prostitution in order to provide for the economic needs of their natal family. And Bedia men have developed a strong resistance to any change in their mode of living, writes Anuja Agrawal.

Does inequality engender crime? S Venkatraman presents a graphical exposition of data from a recent WEF report and the NCRB to unravel the many layers of inequality and violence against women in India.

Passed in 2005, the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act could have been an effective tool to ensure redress for victims of domestic abuse. But an understaffed implementation body has made it yet another selective and often toothless piece of legislation, finds Puja Awasthi.

One year ago, Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, the newly elected Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh had taken the World Bank heads on by calling its policy 'an anti-people condition for lending.' But his government has recently negotiated a loan of Rs 7,510 crores from the bank. Sudhirendar Sharma says Reddy is taking the legacy of his predecessor forward.

Despite islands of progress and even a paradoxical government-run success, the larger picture of girls' education and their empowerment is dismal. There is an enormous gap between fact and paper fiction, and the task for feminists and activists is cut out, says Deepti Priya Mehrotra on the International Women's Day.

Instead of bothering itself with luxury pens, a truly egalitarian society would focus its attention on the emancipatory possiblities inherent in wielding a pen, write Venu Madhav Govindu and Deepak Malghan.

Traditionally, India's dairy cooperative societies have been run by men, but this is gradually changing. Today, 18% of cooperative members are women, and nearly 2500 all-women cooperatives are functioning in the country. Sunanda Nehru Ganju reports from Gujarat, where new livelihoods for women are being established this way.

By tearing up the global rulebook, the US is in fact undermining its own imperial rule, but in this there lies an opportunity for global democracy, says George Monbiot.

It appears that those at the bottom are getting richer - but sadly the maths just doesn't add up. George Monbiot doesn't buy the World Bank's arithmetic.

For the great majority of us who are far from the Tsunami disaster, the easiest thing to contribute is money. Finding someone who'll take our money is easy. But a recipient's annual report summarising relief transactions is not enough to tell us how our money was used, says Ashwin Mahesh.

There is plenty of native intelligence among the people that is very useful in averting and responding to disasters. Planning for disaster management must see this as an asset. The top-down planning and implementation currently in vogue is a poor substitute for community participation, says Videh Upadhyay.

It is no coincidence that it is women who have been targetted in the recent controversy over talking about pre-marital sex. If men voiced similar opinion, their remarks would have been overlooked. Women, apparently, should not speak about sex with this level of frankness, says Kalpana Sharma.

Indian regionalism has come in three varieties - regionalism properly so called, parochialism, and secessionism. The odd thing about the Ulfa is that it has simultaneously partaken of all varieties, and this is why the common people of Assam have never turned completely against the militants, writes Ramachandra Guha.

Once, our universities made a fundamental contribution to the opening of the Indian mind. Now, it is more likely that they will act as a constraint to the further economic and social development of India. Ramachandra Guha notes the four ills that plague India's universities, 150 years after the first three of them were established.

The day the Uttar Pradesh election results came in, I was having lunch with a friend in Mumbai. "Mayavati appears to be the Jayalalithaa of the North," he said; the more I thought about it, the more the comparison made sense. Ramachandra Guha lists the similarities between the power women of the North and South.

The issue of sexual harassment is out in the open and is being discussed. It gives a chance to hundreds of women who have faced situations for which they thought there was no solution to come forward and share their experiences, writes Kalpana Sharma.

How ironical it is that just when Indians are patting themselves on the back on having the richest man in the world in their midst, when the middle classes are celebrating the rising stock market and more, girls are being killed, women are being bought and they have to fear for their lives in many parts of this country, asks Kalpana Sharma.

An excess of secularism may be as problematic as bigotry, whereas pragmatism is in salutary contrast to both of those, writes Ramachandra Guha.

In response to an earlier op-ed by Leo Saldanha on India Together, Prakash Belawadi argues that many of the points raised by Saldanha in particular, may not be so incriminating after all.

Lack of media concern for hunger and related issues makes it that much easier for the state to get away with doing nothing. An interview with Prof. Jean Dreze.

The media is unconsciously desensitising society towards the youth, and pressurising them to conform to a stereotype, says Shivam Vij.

As the government shows Doordarshan's director the door, Prasar Bharati member B G Verghese protests the intrusion by the administration into constitutionally protected domain.

The government's recent CR policy is considered a big leap forward in enabling people to participate in the mass media. The next five years may see some self-help groups, fisherfolk and farmer groups, in areas remote and near, bid for radio stations of their own. Malvika Kaul reports.

Seventeen years after the Supreme Court ruled that the government cannot restrict content on radio, it remains impossible for independent news to be aired on radio channels. Navya P K reports.

The decision of the Censor Board to ban screening of Bengali director Suman Mukhopadhyay's film Kangal Malsat is only the most recent instance in a long history of political interference in free creative expression in this country. Shoma Chatterji reports.

In 50 percent of the killings of Indian journalists since 2010 there have been no arrests so far. We need to come together to protect our tribe, urge Geeta Seshu and Sevanti Ninan.

Despite its apparent focus on middle class insensitivity to the conditions of the working poor, At My Doorstep makes a more important contribution in depicting experiences of male powerlessness. Romit Chowdhury reviews the film.

Though based on strong reporting, India’s Daughter remains restricted in its scope, and even strays from its purported objective, thanks to a very pronounced colonial supremacist gaze, writes Shoma Chatterji in a dispassionate review that cuts through the noise.

A division bench passed a series of orders last month while hearing a public interest litigation alleging that the West Bengal government had failed to enforce the ban against violence on children in schools. Shoma Chatterji reports.

The negative terms of trade against agriculture have to be turned around if the country is keen to emerge from the hunger and poverty trap, says Devinder Sharma.
Q&A on the Minimum Support Pricing policy

For the sixth time in a row, the trade ministers of the developing world have been duped to believe that agricultural trade is for development. Despite making loud noises and fuming over injustice, the faulty framework that underlies the WTO remains very much in place, says Devinder Sharma.

Former Australia captain Ian Chappell has proposed radical changes in the LBW laws, stating that a batsman should be given out leg before as long as the ball is hitting the stumps irrespective of the spot of its landing and impact.

The Sports Ministry had banned spectators in stadiums for any events, including cricket matches, in one of its earliest advisories on the pandemic before all sporting events were brought to a halt altogether.

The camaraderie that players share during the Indian Premier League (IPL) is what makes the tournament special for India and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) captain Virat Kohli. He would have been leading RCB in the 2020 edition of the T20 league at this time, had it not been for the coronavirus pandemic forcing the postponement of the IPL until further notice.

Former India opener Gautam Gambhir doesn't see major changes in the way cricket is played in the post COVID-19 scenario besides the ban on using saliva on the ball. The International Cricket Council is considering legalisation of the usage of artificial substances to shine the ball instead of saliva.

Though there is no avian flu outbreak in Tamil Nadu, poultry farmers across the state have taken precautionary measures.