-The Hindu Parched throats can bring down governments; hence leaders rush to claim credit for ‘water ATMs’ set up in villages Tumakuru/ Bagepalli (Karnataka): Early in 2016, in the grip of drought for the fourth straight year, people of Pathapalli were in a rage. Surrounded by barren flatlands and rocky hills along the Andhra Pradesh boundary, the village had been facing an acute drinking water shortage. The people went on a protest...

-The Indian Express Bill Gates’s claim that it raises no privacy concerns is misleading. Crucial issues that have to do with confidentiality of data and state surveillance are at stake. According to Bill Gates, privacy is not a concern with Aadhaar (‘Aadhaar doesn’t pose any privacy issue, says Bill Gates’, IE, May 3). This widely-quoted statement would have been more convincing if Gates had shown a clear understanding of the Aadhaar project....

-The Times of India BHUBANESWAR: In an unprecedented move described by industrialist Ratan Tata as ‘earth-shaking’, and which prompted Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to take recourse to British author Aldous Huxley, Odisha on Monday provided land rights certificates to 2,000 landless slum dwellers and promised to develop modern urban habitats complete with roads, street lights, parks and playgrounds for them. The initiative is the culmination of the Odisha Land Rights to Slum...

-Livemint.com Loan waiver promises fell short of farmers’ expectations in states like Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Punjab New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janta Party’s (BJP’s) poll promise in Karnataka to waive off farm loans is likely to intensify demands for a similar waiver in other states such as Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan which go to polls this year. In February last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised to waive off farm loans...

-Business Standard/ India Spend Delays in wage payment have been a constant throughout MGNREGS implementation Bachcha Lal’s shirt hung loosely over his frail body, exposing his sunken collarbones, as he stood outside his straw-thatched home in central Uttar Pradesh’s (UP) Bundelkhand region. “They all rely on me,” he said, pointing towards his tubercular son, daughter-in-law and grand-daughter. Illiterate and a landless labourer, 65-year-old Lal makes about Rs 175 a day when he...