-Live Mint ‘Give me any job... but please take me out of this hell', says 57-year-old Saraswati, a manual scavenger New Delhi: Saraswati doesn't remember the last time her bare hands touched the statues of the gods lying on a shaky wooden plank in a corner of her one-room house in Farrukhnagar village of Ghaziabad district. She doesn't remember the last time she prayed or fasted. She says every part of her body...

-The Economic Times It's hard to think of a cereal that is more intrinsic to Indian culture than rice. It journeys with us for a whole lifetime - with the first solid food a baby is traditionally fed during the annaprashan ceremony to sprinkling it over a deceased person's mouth during the last rites. A vast majority of the Indian population eats rice as its staple grain, similar to Asian countries...

-The Hindustan Times The Haryana government on Thursday ordered a chargesheet against 1991 batch IAS officer, Ashok Khemka for major penalty under Rule 8 of All-India Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules. Chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who is the competent authority in disciplinary matters pertaining to IAS officers on Wednesday, approved action against Khemka. Primarily, Khemka has been held liable of administrative misconduct - overstepping jurisdiction in passing orders to cancel the...

-PTI In a landmark verdict, the Supreme Court on Friday held that citizens have right to cast negative vote rejecting all candidates contesting polls, a decision which would encourage people not satisfied with contestants to turn up for voting. The apex court directed the Election Commission to provide ‘none of the above options' at the end of the list of candidates in electronic voting machines (EVMs) and ballot papers to allow voters...

-FirstPost.com It's a daily scene at the busy Gariahat crossing in Kolkata. Traffic is barreling down in all directions. Minibuses make screeching right turns at breakneck speed. The tramline in the middle of the street has been dug up and is a giant crater occupying half the road, marked by corrugated metal walls and little red flags. Taxis and autos dodge buses to try and squeeze by the construction onto a...