-The Hindu The idea of attacking poverty by increasing mobile connectivity in a country that ranks 55 in the Global Hunger Index is just fantasy Interviewer: What would you regard as the most outstanding and significant event of the last decade? Siddhartha: The… war in Vietnam, sir. Interviewer: More significant than landing on the moon? Siddhartha: I think so, sir. — “Pratidwandi” (The Adversary), 1970 The most fundamental debate for our youth is the choice between Android,...

-Livemint.com Arguments against the initiative, such as violation of net neutrality, splintering the Internet and compromising security and privacy, remain unchanged Mumbai: Is it better for the poor to access a bit of the Internet for free with a few strings attached rather than have no access to it at all? On the face of it, most of us will find it hard to disagree with this proposition. After all, no one...

-Livemint.com MGNREGS work days increased to 150 from 100; Rs.5,142 cr rurban project to create 300 smart village clusters New Delhi: The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government on Wednesday unveiled a package of measures to combat rural distress in the backdrop of a below-average monsoon rainfall. The Union cabinet decided to increase the number of days of employment under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) from the existing 100...

The Digital India Mission, launched by the NDA government, aims to connect 2.5 lakh village panchayats with high speed broadband internet by December, 2016 so that citizens can access online services. However, available facts reveal that this is a difficult task to be accomplished. In rural areas, among the youth aged 14-29 about 82 percent do not know how to operate a computer. In urban areas, nearly 51 percent of youth...

-The Hindu Business Line Digital dreams are cheaper than a pot of drinking water in Tila Shahbazpur, near Delhi A Wi-Fi-enabled village with no potable water! Yes, this is Tila Shahbazpur, which was in the news a few months ago as the first village in Uttar Pradesh to get Wi-Fi connectivity. “While [Delhi Chief Minister Arvind] Kejriwal is yet to fulfil his promise, we have done it in no time,” boasted Samajwadi Party...