-TheWire.in While the announcement and achievement are significant, it must be noted that electrification of villages does not translate into electrification of households and is certainly no guarantee for power availability. New Delhi: After missing the initial deadline of May 2017, the Narendra Modi government announced on Sunday morning that the electrification of all inhabited villages in India has been completed. While the announcement and achievement are significant, it is still largely symbolic...

-TheWire.in No rice for villages till MLA, commune commissioner certify them to be clean, said original order by the Puducherry L-G. New Delhi: Puducherry lieutenant-governor Kiran Bedi’s snap decision to stop the distribution of free rice to the poor in villages that have not become open defecation-free and continue to have garbage and plastic strewn around may have been an attempt to incentivise hygienic practices. But it did not go down well...

-Hindustan Times Suitable modifications can be made to account for differences in sizes of constituencies while deciding on the required proportion of tallying V-VPAT with EVMs. Shift from paper ballots to electronic voting machines (EVMs) has reduced the expenses and logistical problems involved in conducting elections in India. This achievement can be jeopardised if allegations of EVM tampering are not addressed in a satisfactory manner. Parties such as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)...

-Livemint.com India’s weather office has forecast a normal monsoon. Bountiful rains in the June-to-September period are critical for about 800 million Indians who depend directly or indirectly on farming New Delhi: Gangabhishan Thaware, a 53-year-old farmer from the drought-prone Marathwada region of Maharashtra, took an unusual step in July last year. Thaware and his fellow villagers had toiled on their fields and spent thousands of rupees on seeds and fertilizers, hopeful...

  There is some bad news for the world’s largest democracy. Thanks to the vitiated atmosphere induced by troll attacks on scribes on social media, among other things, the country's World Press Freedom Index (WPFI) ranking has fallen two places to 138th position.   Among 180 countries, India ranked 136th last year with a score of 42.94. However, in 2018 it attained 138th position with a score of 43.24 according to the...