The ubiquitousness of the mobile phone in urban areas and its spread in rural areas in India seem to have fed a notion — not substantiated by hard evidence — that there is a wide and deep market for such services in the countryside. Such a notion has remained largely unverified because of the scarcity of data on the extent of ownership of assets and access to services such as...

NEW DELHI: Taking a serious view of the Haryana Government's failure to arrest the perpetrators of atrocities against the dalits of Mirchpur village, the Supreme Court on Thursday directed the State to arrest by this coming Monday all those who are wanted in the case by the police. A Bench of Justice G. S. Singhvi and Justice A. K. Ganguly is hearing a writ petition filed by Jaswant Singh and others seeking...

Taking a serious view of the Haryana Government's failure to arrest the perpetrators of atrocities against the dalits of Mirchpur village, the Supreme Court on Thursday directed the State to arrest by this coming Monday all those who are wanted in the case by the police. A Bench of Justice G. S. Singhvi and Justice A. K. Ganguly is hearing a writ petition filed by Jaswant Singh and others seeking relief...

It's the untold tale of a village in the grip of the feudal system, and a quiet revolt brewing. Budihalli village of Karnataka's Chitradurga district is a glaring example of caste discrimination and bondage, with a yawning gap between communities. Here, landlords hold sway. They allegedly rape and torture women of lower castes while the men work as bonded labourers, paying off debts accumulated over generations. Breaking the stranglehold, 25...

Mayavati had better do something quick about the state of schools in Uttar Pradesh if she wants children to spell her name right. An NGO assessing the District Primary Education Programme and Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, a national programme for universalisation of elementary education, asked 16 students of Classes III and IV of a government school in Joar village near Lucknow to write the name of their chief minister in Hindi. Mavit and...