-Hindustan Times Delhi: The Delhi government launched the first of its 54 model schools, which has audio-visual teaching aids, projectors in classrooms and a swanky building on Wednesday. Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia had in 2015 announced that it will turn 54 of its schools as a pilot project to bring government schools at par with private schools. While all the shortlisted schools are undergoing renovation, Sarvodaya Bal Vidyalaya in Rouse Avenue was the...

-IANS New Delhi: India’s cash-driven agri sector continues to reel under the effects of demonetisation, with farmers growing fruits and vegetables suffering “huge losses”, say farm leaders who want the Union budget to “compensate” them for these losses. Amid reports of farmers dumping or refusing to harvest crops like tomatoes and peas due to a crash in prices as traders did not have the cash to purchase the produce, farmer leader Ajay...

-Hindustan Times Hamirgarh/ Dhanaula/ Chandigarh: Gurpreet Singh and Sandeep Duggal have more than 350 friends on Facebook. At 19, Gurpreet’s profile clearly gravitates to pictures of youth – astride an Enfield motorcycle, one with a friend in the corridors of a college, and the quintessential selfie with sunglasses. Duggal’s is more subdued. In a black-and-white profile photograph, he smiles with arms folded, exuding the confidence of a young man who identifies himself...

-Hindustan Times The government and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) are set to bring out tougher norms for cooperative banks, which have come under scanner for alleged discrepancies and irregularities in the wake of the demonetisation drive. According to a recent report by the income tax department, most banks have indulged in money laundering after the Narendra Modi government announced ban on high-value bank notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 from...

The Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) election manifesto for 2014 Lok Sabha election says that if elected to the Centre, it will then "(p)ut in place welfare measures for farmers above 60 years in age, small and marginal farmers and farm labours", among other things. Despite the formation of a BJP led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre in 2014, the latest available data on farm suicides from the...