-Live Mint The experience of Kerala and Tripura shows how panchayati raj can help in the empowerment of women Chulubari (Tripura)/Kanjikuzhy (Kerala): Her relatives warned Hena Das, a resident of Chulubari in Tripura, against taking up political office because it wasn't "meant for women". Das disregarded the warnings. Two years on, she has no regrets. She also has no male colleagues; her fellow representatives on the board of an 12-member panchayat are all...

-The Hindu Bangalore: Byatarayanapura Assembly constituency that was carved out from Yelahanka ahead of the previous Assembly elections has become a hot destination for real estate developers. Its proximity to the international airport and the six-lane highway that passes through this constituency providing smooth connectivity to the central parts of the city have put real estate development on a fast track here. But this has unleashed its ugly impact as real estate...

-PTI The Uttar Pradesh government has spent 900 per cent above the budget allocated for building school toilets under Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, with nearly 60 per cent of the total Rs 32.25 crore going to just one district. Under the central government scheme, Rs 24,000 per unit was allocated for constructing 1,538 toilets during the five year period from 2007-08 to 2011-12, which comes to Rs 3.69 crore. However, an RTI...

-The Economic Times Young IAS officer Omprakash Choudhary has won the Prime Minister's award for excellence in public administration for his stellar work in education in Chattisgarh's Dantewada district, the scene of country's worst Naxal insurgency. The 31-year-old officer of the 2005 batch was among the youngest recipients ever to receive the award on Sunday, which happens to be Civil Services Day in Delhi. "Dantewada district is my first posting as a...

-The Hindu From the outside, it is just one of those private schools tucked away in an obscure corner that holds out the promise of convent-education, but once you are inside the poorly-lit building -- known as House No.16 -- in South-West Delhi's Bijwasan, you are confronted by the presence of countless buzzing flies and a pervading nauseating stench. This school with cramped classrooms and no students is home to grown...