-The Hindu    Will not just help provide livelihood, but also protect land The Congress-led government in Rajasthan has taken up development of pasture land in tribal-dominated Udaipur region under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) by involving a voluntary organisation in the work. The project has been launched in Chhali and Amleta villages of Udaipur district. Inaugurating the project at the two remote villages this past weekend, State Rural Development...

-The Economic Times   At a time when the social media is said to have spawned revolutions across the world, including our very own Anna Hazare movement, the government looks set to use the medium as a governance tool. The department of information technology has framed guidelines for social media interaction with government organizations to optimize use of the popular communication tool to connect with citizens. The guidelines - stressing on issues like professionalism,...

Ankaji Bhai Gangar, a 49-year-old subsistence farmer, stood in line in this remote village until, for the first time in his life, he squinted into the soft glow of a computer screen. His name, year of birth and address were recorded. A worker guided Mr. Gangar’s rough fingers to the glowing green surface of a scanner to record his fingerprints. He peered into an iris scanner shaped like binoculars that...

Ardent admirers of the Supreme Court will credit it with starting three revolutions in the past three decades. In the 1980s the public interest litigation (PIL) movement opened the doors of the court to every citizen, especially those who could not reach it due to poverty, illiteracy or backwardness. Around the same time, the court sowed the seeds of citizens’ right to know in a few judgments, asserting that sunlight is...

I have been asked by my many friends to give my views on the recent ongoing movement against the corruption and Jan Lokpal Bill. Here in this article, I would like to present a young Dalit’s view to this bill and this recent movement. I may disappoint many of you especially those who think that bringing Lokpal Bill will solve the problem of corruption from India (yes, we rank very...