The 'cold desert' of Leh on Sundat entered the Guinness Book of World Records  after 50,000 saplings were planted at a village here in less than one hour by 9,000 volunteers under a drive supported by Buddhist monks to mark the 'green' Commonwealth Games in Delhi. The earlier record was held by Peru where 40,000 saplings were planted during an one-hour event by 8,000 volunteers. The programme was flagged off by Drukchen...

We need spectacle in the capital, not mundane things like schools and hospitals in villages In the final years of the Roman Republic, the Senate kept the masses happy by distributing cheap food and staging big spectacles known as the circus games to get votes. In his satires, the Roman poet Juvenal observed witheringly that governance had been reduced to panem et circenses (bread and circus/games). He was referring to the...

At least 5000 farmers of the district's Sadar block will not get insurance claims of their crops that got damaged in drought last year due to wrong assessment report of the officials. A four-member block-level team comprising block agriculture officer, junior statistics supervisor, block cooperative officer and circle inspector had submitted its report after field assessment in four selected areas, which included four large multi-purpose cooperative society (LAMPS) plots in Lohardaga,...

Did former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu assault a tribal woman  during a meeting in East Godavari district? Yes, says a television channel, which repeatedly telecast the scene but Naidu's Telugu Desam Party (TDP) denies it. The visuals show TDP chief raising his hand to beat a woman, snatching the mike from her and even hitting her on her arm to force her to sit down. The main opposition...

The Aadhaar universal ID has been rolled out to general applause and will soon change our lives across the board. The project should accomplish its mission, which is to improve the delivery of rural welfare. It may liberate the poor and marginalised from the cash economy and give them access to formal finance and banking. And if the ID is made mandatory for big transactions, it may reduce money laundering...