Last month, the turmeric farmers of Maharashtra's Sangli district found themselves in a desperate situation. Oversupply had resulted in prices crashing in the local turmeric market, Asia's biggest, threatening their livelihood. And with several thousands growing the commodity across Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, any meaningful strategy to halt the price crash meant involving a sizeable number of farmers.  That's when local farmer Atul Salunkhe, 31, had a brainwave. How...

In Chhattisgarh, Hindutva manifests itself in the form of attacks on Christians; in Uttarakhand it does so in the form of promoting Sanskrit. IN Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand, States ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Hindutva agenda may not be strident, but the Sangh Parivar orientation is unmistakable in various government policies and programmes. While in Uttarakhand the party places much emphasis on gau mata (bovine goddess) and the teaching of...

Of the 22 companies summoned by a Delhi civil court over objectionable content on their websites, only Google India submitted today that it had removed certain contentious pages. Facebook, Yahoo! India and Microsoft said there was no cause for action against them. In its affidavit, Facebook told the court that it does not control or operate the servers that host the website at www.facebook.com, which are located in the US. Google...

His crime: he complained of corruption in rural job guarantee scheme Dhuraram Kuldiya, former Sarpanch of Somalsar Panchayat in Nohkha teshil of Bikaner district, did not sign an SOS he sent to Rajasthan Chief Secretary on Monday in the form of a letter. Instead, his son Bhanwarlal inked it. Not that Dhuraram is illiterate. Admitted to a private hospital here in the State capital now, he cannot use his hands for both...

-PTI Facebook India on Monday filed its compliance report before the Delhi court which had ordered it and 21 other websites to remove objectionable content from their websites. Google India also told the court that it has removed certain web pages from the Internet on which the petitioners raised objections. Meanwhile, Facebook, Yahoo and Microsoft told the court that they have no role to play in the case and there is no cause...