-The Hindu Researchers at IIT-Madras have developed a hybrid solar-powered desalination plant that can serve areas suffering from severe drinking water shortage but have sea or brackish ground water. A solar photovoltaic panel is dovetailed to a power grid or a backup diesel generator that will power up during periods of weak sunshine and at night and keep producing water through a reverse osmosis plant. When the sun shines, the RO...

-Live Mint Almost two decades after the Panchayati Raj Act was notified, a key aim of the legislation remains unfulfilled Papapatti/Madurai district: S. Muruganadam, 38, is the Dalit president of the Papapatti village panchayat in Madurai district and a post-graduate in political science. His term ends in 2016 and he has made up his mind not to run for re-election. "I think a panchayat president's post is an important post because only...

-Mid-Day.com Mumbai: Thane resident Priya Mahunta is still undergoing surgeries for the 45 per cent burns she sustained in a kitchen accident last year. But despite the scars and marks, which hindered her learning, she has done the unthinkable. Thirteen-year-old Mahunta has passed her Std VIII examinations with flying colours, securing 94 per cent, in spite of being snubbed by several tuition classes from the area who were afraid that other...

-The Hindustan Times Ranchi: A team of female footballers from Jharkhand on the verge of making history at a tournament in Spain is allegedly facing severe abuse from panchayat officials angling for bribes. The members of Yuva Football Club, mostly poor tribals between 12 to 14 years of age, said they were slapped and even made to sweep floors when they went to the panchayat office on the outskirts of state capital...

-Down to Earth For RTI activists of Bihar the cost of exposing corruption is life Twenty-year-old Rahul Kumar, a right to information (RTI) activist, knew the land mafia was behind his parents' murder. His mother and father were involved in a land dispute in Muzaffarpur's Sirisia Jagdish village. Barely a week after filing an RTI application to seek information about the murderers, Kumar was kidnapped. A day later, on March 10, 2012,...