-TheWire.in No rice for villages till MLA, commune commissioner certify them to be clean, said original order by the Puducherry L-G. New Delhi: Puducherry lieutenant-governor Kiran Bedi’s snap decision to stop the distribution of free rice to the poor in villages that have not become open defecation-free and continue to have garbage and plastic strewn around may have been an attempt to incentivise hygienic practices. But it did not go down well...

-The Indian Express The move comes after complaints against banks that they were not intimating eligible farmers whose names along with the amount has been cleared by the state government. Mumbai: The state government has decided to directly intimate eligible farmers across 40,913 villages about the loan waiver scheme. The move comes after complaints against banks that they were not intimating eligible farmers whose names along with the amount has been cleared...

-The Hindu Law Commission asked to make draft Moving a step ahead towards framing a distinct law for online “hate speech,” the Home Ministry has written to the Law Commission to prepare a draft law. The provisions will deal with offensive messages sent through social media and online messaging applications. The decision came after a committee headed by former Lok Sabha Secretary General T.K. Viswanathan submitted a report recommending stricter laws to curb...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The national rural job scheme is set to witness the lowest wage revision since the project was launched. The Union finance ministry is learnt to have rejected a proposal to change the formula for revising the wage rate for 2018-19 under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) for 2018-19. The rates in 10 states, including Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, are expected to remain unchanged,...

-The Hindu Dockless bicycle-sharing attracts residents who live in apartment blocks spread across several acres Bengaluru: Until recently, Rohan Kapoor, a Class XI student staying in Adarsh Palm Retreat on Outer Ring Road (ORR) in Bengaluru, had to be picked up and dropped at the exit gate within his own apartment complex. That was because the gate is 2.5 km away from home. Now, he uses his phone to unlock one of the...