Here are some important reports from the biggest newspapers of India:
1. 50% of rapes in Delhi by JNU students, says Rajasthan BJP MLA
Gyan Dev Ahuja, the mustachioed BJP MLA from Rajasthan who claimed 3,000 used condoms were found daily on the JNU campus, shot his mouth off again on Thursday, saying 50% of rape and molestation offences in Delhi were committed by students of the university.
The source of his information was the annual report of the Delhi Commission for Women, Ahuja claimed, according to report in Hindustan Times.
Hundreds of social media users ridiculed Ahuja after the MLA from Ramgarh in Alwar accused JNU students of "misdeed with our sisters and daughters" and said more than 3,000 beer cans, 2,000 liquor bottles, 10,000 cigarette butts, 4,000 beedis, 50,000 bone pieces, 2,000 wrappers of chips and 3,000 used condoms were found on the campus daily.
2. Aligarh Mayor's mission: 'To protect cows, Hindu girls'
Perched on a tall chair in her office opposite the district and sessions court, city mayor Shakuntala Bharti, 50, said she's lost count of the number of cows she has saved from being slaughtered over the years.
"I just returned after rescuing two cows. They were being taken in a tempo. The driver knew me, he apologised. The people who were taking the cows for slaughter were riding on motorcycles ahead of the tempo. They escaped," she told The Indian Express.
Every other day, she added, cases came up where she had to intervene to protect 'gau mata'.
3. Ishrat 'exonerated' under political pressure, says ex-home secy Pillai
Former Union home secretary GK Pillai on Thursday said Ishrat Jahan was a cover for the LeT module out to target then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi before she and her three aides were killed in an encounter in 2004.
According to the Times of India, he said the decision to revise home ministry's affidavit in the Ishrat encounter case so as to state that there was no conclusive proof of her Lashkar link was taken at the "political level".
While Pillai was home secretary when the original MHA affidavit that described Ishrat and her slain aides as LeT operatives was revised in 2009, P Chidambaram was the home minister.
4. Woman held for forcing girl into sex with MLA
Nalanda police on Thursday arrested the woman who allegedly forced a schoolgirl to have sex with an RJD MLA on the night of February 6, said a report in the Times of India.
Besides the accused, Sulekha Devi, police also arrested her mother Radha Devi, daughter Chhoti Kumari, younger sister Tulsi Devi, and one Moti Ram, who helped them dodge police, newly appointed Nalanda SP Kumar Ashish said.
Kumar said the accused legislator, Nawada MLA Rajballabh Yadav, will also be arrested soon.
5. Lalu tells Bihar to buy meds only from Centre-approved agencies
Bihar health minister Tej Pratap Yadav's father and RJD chief Lalu Prasad on Thursday suggested the state to purchase medicines for its health centres from only those agencies which are approved by the Centre, reported the Times of India.
While speaking at the 91st foundation day and alumni meet of Patna Medical College, Lalu said, "The medicines of those agencies may be costly , but their quality and effectiveness would be ensured and the poor people would benefit. Villagers were being duped as fake medicines result even in poor patient's death."
Lalu said the state government should remove all hurdles in medicine purchase.The medicine purchase process hit roadblocks after a scam surfaced in Bihar in 2014.
6. 'Birth companions' to help moms-to-be
The health ministry has allowed 'birth companions' during delivery in public health facilities, a move aimed at reducing maternal and infant mortality.
This would mean female relatives with experience of the process of labour and husband of the pregnant woman can be present during delivery, reported the Times of India.
The step is part of lowcost interventions initiated by the government to meet the sustainable development goals and is expected to help expectant mothers by easing the delivery process.
7. Bid to fight terror on social media: Draconian 66A may be back in a softer form
The government is ready with what it believes is the draft of a fool-proof replacement for a portion of the Information Technology Act which was trashed by the Supreme Court about a year ago as vague, unconstitutional and violative of the freedom of speech.
Spurred by the country's police and intelligence agencies, which claim that they are struggling to deal with cases where social media is being used to undermine peace and national security, the government is poised to revive Section 66A of the IT law in a new avatar.
A report in Economic Times said that the new form of the law claims to be milder and more specific, according to people aware of the plan.
8. HRD Ministry reforms Philosophical Council
The Smriti Irani-led HRD ministry has reconstituted the Indian Council for Philosophical Research (ICPR) bringing in Sanskrit scholars, a former BJP member of the Legislative Council in Karnataka, a retired IPS officer who has turned to Hinduism and religion in a big way and a scholar who is associated with an organisation that recently claimed to have put exact date of Lord Ram's birth.
The HRD ministry has approved reconstitution of the Council on February 22, 2016 nominating 12 new members to the council.
Economic Times reported that four of them are Sanskrit scholars. The term of the last council expired in October 2015.
9. Scindia's speech vs Irani's speech: RSS, O P Sharma, Godse deleted in House records, JNU students stay
On Thursday, the Lok Sabha secretariat released a list of words expunged from the heated discussion the day before over the JNU sedition row and the suicide of a Dalit student in Hyderabad. What was unusual were the words that were expunged and those that were not.
While references made in the speech by Congress chief whip Jyotiraditya Scindia to the RSS, Delhi BJP legislator O P Sharma and Nathuram Godse were expunged, what stayed on record were the names of the eight JNU students identified by HRD Minister Smriti Irani.
Asked why the word RSS was expunged, an official spokesperson of the secretariat told The Indian Express that it was "because of the context of its usage and not the word per se." Asked about the students, the spokesperson said, "The context in which the minister listed their names was relevant and therefore, there was no expunction."
10. Umar and Anirban demand cigarettes, newspaper and space with Kanhaiya
JNU students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, before answering any questions to the police, reportedly had three requests — a pack of cigarettes, newspapers and that they be kept together with Kanhaiya Kumar at the RK Puram police station.
Khalid and Anirban, arrested on charges of sedition for raising anti-India slogans on February 9, are in police custody. Kanhaiya Kumar also was sent to one-day police custody on Thursday by a city court.
According to a report in Hindustan Times, Khalid confessed that he was a regular smoker and that the last smoke he had was minutes before his surrender. The request for cigarettes was denied.
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