-Live Mint Dominant caste groups in the state have found their own ways to capture and preserve power Dravidian political parties, which came into existence with the objective of achieving social equality, have been in power for more than four decades in Tamil Nadu, yet caste-based discrimination against the Dalits has remained a fact of life in the southern state. That's in contrast with neighbouring Kerala, which has emerged as a...

-The Times of India HYDERABAD: In a move that may provide relief to thousands of undertrials in state jails, the state information commission is planning to direct the government to make public the list of those who are languishing in prisons without trial for a long time, officials said. "We will order the prisons department to immediately make the information on undertrials public under the Right to Information act," saidJannat Hussain, chief...

-Civil Society Online Accreditation is the act of granting credit or recognition. It is to be preceded with a process where facts, figures and professional ethics are scrutinized so that the desired certification of competency, authority or credibility is presented. Only the best suited with the requisite track record are to find themselves in the approved list. In India, the much talked about and well critiqued initiative wherein consultants undertaking the responsibility...

-Bloomberg The corpse of Indian farmer Bengali Singh burned to ash atop a blazing funeral pyre on the banks of the river Ganges in 2006. Five years later, the dead man was recorded as being paid by India's $33 billion rural jobs program to dig an irrigation canal in Jharkhand state. Officials in his village and the surrounding region used at least 500 identities, including those of Singh, a disabled child of...

-Live Mint Tariffs reach at least Rs.4 per unit in many states, finds analysis, amid efforts to bail out state discoms Indian domestic consumers in 16 states are paying at least `4 per unit for power and in some cases even more, according to an analysis, thus giving the lie to the long-held axiom that raising tariffs is nearly impossible in India given the political compulsions. The finding also shows conclusively that...