The Digital India Mission, launched by the NDA government, aims to connect 2.5 lakh village panchayats with high speed broadband internet by December, 2016 so that citizens can access online services. However, available facts reveal that this is a difficult task to be accomplished. In rural areas, among the youth aged 14-29 about 82 percent do not know how to operate a computer. In urban areas, nearly 51 percent of youth...

-IPS News GUNTUR, India: Thirty-seven-year-old Kode Sujatha stands in front of a hut with a palm-thatched roof, surrounded by a group of men shouting angrily and jostling one another for a spot at the front of the crowd. Each of the boatmen, who carry sand mined from a nearby river to the shore every day, wants to be paid before the others.   Sujatha stares hard at them, holds up a piece of paper...

-The Hindu Thrissur (Kerala): Hard and dedicated work has won laurels for Samrudhi, a Kudumasree unit from Madakkathara. It has been chosen for the award best agriculture operations among Kudumbasree units in Thrissur district. Samrudhi’s success story began three years ago when an MoU was signed between the district authorities of Kudumbasree and the Kerala Agricultural University t(KAU) o permit the 10-member unit to cultivate vegetables on a five-acre land of the...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's magic appears to be working well among cooking gas consumers. With a little assistance from state-run fuel retailers. Between 30,000 and 40,000 households are giving up LPG subsidy daily in response to a countrywide door-to-door campaign launched by the oil marketers to capitalize on the prime minister's call to 'Give It Up'. The result is nothing but magical in a country used to...

-Down to Earth Despite being a world leader in pulses production, India has been forced to import due to crop loss and seed deficit. The sharp rise in prices is only a symptom Rani Devi, 47, is drying chickpea (chanaa daal) in Kuite Khera village of Uttar Pradesh. She intends to use them as seeds in the coming rabi season (October to December), as she is facing acute shortage of seeds....