The Delhi High Court’s order directing Indian Navy to grant permanent commission to women was the subject of analysis in the Indian dailies which said that the decision would set right the official gender discrimination . The monsoon season which turned out to be a tragedy this time around, was another subject of analysis in the dailies because it is causing a rural distress.

A leading daily, THE HINDU  in its editorial titled, ‘A BLOW FOR GENDER PARITY’, says the Delhi High Court’s decision to Indian Navy to grant permanent commission to women as well, as the Army and the Air Force had to do following a 2010 order by a different bench of the same court, is a welcome decision. With the latest ruling, women who qualify for permanent commission will be able to work until the age of 54, as their male counterparts do. The 19 women who filed petitions before the court argued that they had received the same training as their male counterparts and worked for a comparable number of years in different departments, but could go no further for the only reason that they were women. Grant of permanent commission would allow women to rise in rank along with the men, and gain pay parity, the daily states.

In the Army, since the grant of permanent commission to women began, 340 women have been granted such positions, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar recently told Parliament. The latest order will open the doors for women in the Navy too. The daily suggests the Defence Ministry and the armed forces to do something more.. For one, the forces must tackle entrenched sexist attitudes towards women that were in evidence when the Army argued before the Supreme Court against the grant of permanent commission for them, saying that junior officers from rural areas would not be willing to accept a woman as a leader in front line situations, or that society was not yet willing to accept women in combat roles. India’s first woman in the Army to receive a gallantry award, Lt. Col. Mitali Madhumita, had to move the Supreme Court for permanent commission after she was denied it on the ground that she had earlier turned it down. Suicide rates among women in the forces have also been disproportionately high, and they do not seem to be getting enough support in coping with the dual tasks of handling work and family life, the daily states.

An editorial in THE TRIBUNE titled, ` FARMERS OFF THE RADAR’, comments on the monsoon and its impact on agriculture produce and farmers and says that the season is turning out to be a tragedy as the rains failed in between. The deficiency in rainfall is expected to be between 30 per cent to 50 per  cent in various parts of the country, the daily states. Marathwada, which has already seen more than 400 farmer suicides this year, has become a kind of barometer for rural distress, though the entire state of Maharashtra also is only marginally better (1,300 farmer suicides till June). Punjab and Haryana will be affected too, though more in terms of input costs than yield because of irrigation. Since nearly half of India's agriculture is dependent on rain, crops such as pulses and oilseeds, which are grown on such marginal lands, will be the most affected, the daily explains. Crop failure becomes more of a farmers’ concern than a national responsibility, the daily laments. This detachment of the farm tragedy from the national agenda would explain why agriculture is steadily going down in the policymakers' priorities. All states on the Deccan Plateau suffer for want of artificial irrigation, as ground water is not an option. And we have failed to build sufficient storage and distribution facilities. According to the daily, this is a particularly astounding failure of the political leadership. A sector that is just one-fifth of the national economy has not been taken care of even as it directly or indirectly supports three-fourths of the population. That is for the long-term issues. Even in the short term, safety nets like MGNREGA are being curtailed, which can act as default relief delivery channels. Rural distress is building up. A migration crisis may already be silently taking place. It is time to take a call on it, the daily insists.