Gosikhurd was sanctioned in 1983 and meant to irrigate 2.5 lakh hectares in Vidarbha As Manikrao Gedam sits outside his three-room house, he wonders how he has benefited by giving up his 10 acres for the Gosikhurd irrigation project at Bhandara in Maharashtra's Vidarbha region. For that matter, he wonders what anyone has gained from it. Today, he has nothing else, but the house in a resettlement colony; his sons are unemployed; and...

-The Hindu A petition submitted to Prof. Sukhadeo Thorat, Chairperson, NCERT Textbooks Review Committee, by leading Dalit and non-Dalit writers, scholars and Activists. When NCERT's Class XI Political Science textbook, Indian Constitution at Work , came to the attention of some Dalit Activists, they objected to the manner in which the Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, had been depicted riding a snail representing the Constitution, with...

One man's quest to make the right to information the right to action Subhash Chandra Agrawal doesn't drink tea, eat onions, watch movies, listen to music, or want to raise children in this corrupt and polluted world. A cloth merchant from Chandni Chowk, Mr. Agrawal (62) follows the news and files Right to Information (RTI) requests: on the selection criteria for national awards, the assets of judges, the prevalence of bigamy among...

-CNN-IBN Beed: The Maharashtra state government has promised to act against rampant female foeticide in Beed district that was reported by CNN-IBN earlier. The state government will meet Maharshtra Medical Council (MCI), Indian Medical Association (IMA) and radiologists to find a way to curb foeticide. They will all be looking at a proposal to shut down all stand-alone sonography centres and ban some abortion drugs. The decision comes after CNN-IBN reported from Beed...

Call it a strategy to garner political support for passing pending key education Bills or a progressive measure to reduce caste bias in colleges and universities—the central government has put in place a set of rules that can possibly stop grants or cancel recognition of higher educational institutes engaging in such discrimination. The new rules set out by the University Grants Commission (UGC) aim to provide safeguards to students of reserved...