-The Hindu Tech-savvy teens develop alternative social networking platforms for the Valley Srinagar: A bright and windy day, when tourists were out and about in Srinagar, turned dark in minutes. Shops and schools shut, children rushed home, police swarmed the streets and internet links snapped, as news of top Hizbul Mujahideen commander Sabzar Bhat’s death broke. But amidst the chaos, two teens were busy making plans to attract more traffic to their...

-PTI/ The Telegraph Mumbai: The BJP-led Maharashtra government today unveiled a Rs 34,020-crore farm loan waiver scheme, under which debt of up to Rs 1.5 lakh each will be written off, making 40 lakh farmers debt-free and providing relief to 49 lakh others. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said this was the "biggest" loan waiver scheme in the country. He said all BJP ministers and legislators would contribute a month's salary towards the...

-The Hindu Business Line ‘Odd’ monsoon path upsets crop cycle, slows down sowing Ahmedabad: Farmers in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and parts of Maharashtra are a worried lot as the ‘monsoon watch’ gets longer in the key growing regions, affecting the sowing of kharif crops. According to the latest available data, farmers in Gujarat have completed sowing on about 8.71 lakh hectares, which is more than double the 2.74 lakh hectares sown by about...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: For some days now, several service providers — from insurance and banking to telecom and hotels — have been sending emailers to customers warning of a GST-driven increase in prices starting July 1. Alarmed and unconvinced, the revenue department in the finance ministry has roped in other ministries to impress upon industry to adjust input tax credit against possible increase in tax liability. The tax credit...

-The Telegraph The Narendra Modi government's record in tacitly supporting the actions of a bunch of vigilante thugs who have been terrorizing the country, especially the Muslims and the Dalits, in the guise of gau rakshaks, or opponents of love jihad, or 'nationalists', has been so outrageous that it has grabbed all the critical attention. In the process, the government's abysmal failures in other spheres have gone virtually unnoticed. One such...