-The Hindu Allahabad: Breaking the chains of tradition, more than a hundred widows who live an isolated and tough life in the narrow alleys of Varanasi, on Monday shared a common platform with Hindu seers and scholars, and even dined with them. The seers and sanskrit scholars converged on the holy city to explore ways of addressing the plight of widows. They quoted from the Dharm Shastra and Samaj Shastra, ancient Hindu...

-Live Mint Lack of decentralization means municipalities lack power, resources to meet rising aspirations of ‘middle' India Othakadai, Madurai (Tamil Nadu)/Hubli (Karnataka): S. Paramasivam , president of the Othakadai panchayat, has big plans for his area. "Rainwater harvesting, removal of encroachments on roads, waste recycling, covered drainage, bigger primary health care centres and community parks," lists the 58-year-old, who has spent 30 years in the stainless steel business that dominates industry...

-The Hindu Natpurwa is a village where women have been forced into prostitution for centuries. And one of them is determined to help the others break free. Round faced, stout and dusky, Chandralekha, at age 15, was the most desired girl among the politicians, policemen and senior members of Eastern Uttar Pradesh’s civil society. “They always wanted plump women,” says Chandralekha, now 51 years old. Chandralekha was pushed into prostitution, by her...

-CNN-IBN Inside the crumbling housing estates of Shivaji Enclave, amid the boys playing cricket and housewives chatting from their balconies, winding staircases lead to places where lies a darker side to India's economic boom. Three months ago, police rescued Theresa Kerketa from one of these tiny two-roomed flats. For four years, she was kept here by a placement agency for domestic maids, in between stints as a virtual slave to Delhi's...

-PTI KARAIKUDI (TN): Disbursal of agricultural loans has been on the rise under the UPA regime and the target for this fiscal has been fixed at Rs 5.75 lakh crore, an increase of Rs 1,00,000 crore over the previous year, Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram said today. 'We have set a target of disbursing Rs 5,75,000 crore (loans) during this year (2012-13),' he said inaugurating the new building of Rural Training Centre...