-Hindustan Times Arsenic contamination is spreading fast in 12 states and beyond, with around one lakh people already dead and the chemical entering the food chain through farm products in the region, a committee of secretaries in a report to the government has said. The committee has also estimated that 7.04 crore people have been affected, with around three lakh people having arsenic-related diseases in the country. Of them, the report said,...

-Hindustan Times During his town hall address at IIT Delhi, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said: “Those who don’t have access to the internet cannot sign online petitions.” But how can he decide what is best for them? Recent research by Amba Kak at the Oxford Internet Institute found that financially constrained users prefer buying shorter duration Internet plans (e.g. three days) with all access, as opposed to WhatsApp-only plans that are...

-TheNewsMinutes.com It needed not just convincing, but also the threat of legal action against those who discriminated It took a lot of convincing, backed by the possibility of cases being filed against them, to get upper caste people to stop objecting to a Dalit woman being appointed as a cook in the Mysuru government school, where Chief Minister Siddaramaiah studied. On Friday, The Indian Express reported that attendance at a government school...

-Hindustan Times A group of Delhi University students is arranging professional training for over 20 transgender people to help make them financially independent.   The group of students from Ramjas College have roped in experts to train members of the transgender community in jewellery making under a project called ‘Transcreation’.   “We contacted some NGOs who work with transgender community and started working with them. We want to empower the community and for that the...

  Seven journalists from English and Hindi media from Delhi, Chandigarh, Jharkhand, Haryana, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh have been selected for the prestigious Inclusive Media-UNDP Fellowships 2015. The fellows will take time off from routine journalism to spend time with rural/ marginalized communities to highlight their anxieties and concerns that require wider coverage and public attention. The fellowships cover costs of news gathering, logistics and incidental expenses up to Rs 150,000. The...