-The Hindu Surakhpur, declared ‘fully digital payment enabled’ by government, rues low literacy, poor connectivity Around 10 days ago, a team of Delhi government officials handed over two PoS (point of sale) machines to kirana (grocery) store owners Surat Singh and Ramesh Kumar, both residents of Surakhpur village in Najafgarh, on the Delhi-Haryana border. The officials taught the two how to use the machines. On Wednesday, when The Hindu visited the village, where...

-Bloomberg When farmers in the scorched village of Horti in Western India were struggling to raise money for a canal, they turned to an unlikely source: a crowdfunding website called FuelADream. The farmers had never heard of crowdfunding before, but a local non-profit group suggested the site and helped them write a proposal that explained how a canal would help feed local families. Within weeks, they had raised Rs 300,000 ($4,490) from...

-PTI A Rajya Sabha Select Committee examining an anti-corruption Amendment bill was on Friday granted extension till the next session of Parliament, to submit its recommendations. The term of the Committee, which was to submit its report on the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill 2013 during the current session, was extended till the Winter Session. BJP’s Bhupender Yadav moved a motion in Rajya Sabha for extending the time for presentation of the report...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: A draft education policy has suggested that the curriculum be drawn up with the objective of making every student feel proud of being Indian, a source told The Telegraph today. The content of every subject, particularly in school, should be designed weaving in values like righteousness, truth and the students' responsibility to themselves and the country, the source said, summarising recommendations submitted to the Union human resource development...

-The Hindu Rather than criminalising bribegivers, the objective of combating coercive corruption would be achieved if the government puts in place a grievance redress mechanism The Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA), the key legislation which defines what constitutes corruption and prescribes penalties for corruption-related offences, is set to be amended by Parliament. The proposed Bill, now before a select committee of the Rajya Sabha, includes several contentious amendments that are likely to...