In a remote Indian village in the Western state of Maharashtra, a fourth-grader named Suraj Balu Zore proudly told IPS that he can now effortlessly operate a laptop computer. Fallen by the wayside of urban India’s information technology (IT) superhighway, Khairat village – located just 80 kilometres from booming Mumbai – still has no access to the Internet.  But thanks to the recent efforts of ‘one laptop per child’ – a project...

Caught offering to publish scripted political interview as ‘news' for Rs. 86,400   “First we'll do one interview on TV on HCN [Herald Cable Network] and after that episode next week, we can carry the same kind of write-up [in the Herald] … how it appeared today, no ... for the HCN thing you have to make a payment of 50,000 [rupees] … and this particular size for Herald, it will be...

Armed with recordings, transcripts, emails and cuttings, Mayabhushan Nagvenkar has taken the matter of what he calls “an open and shut case” of ‘paid news' against OHeraldO of Goa to the Press Council of India. The Press Council defines ‘paid news' as “any news or analysis appearing in any media [print or electronic] for a price in cash or kind as consideration.” Mr. Nagvenkar backs his complaint with audios and transcripts...

There are serious concerns over shortages of food and housing as the country's population is expected to reach 1.45bn by 2035 The Madanpur Khadr colony is a tenement slum on the southern outskirts of Delhi, the Indian capital. A decade ago there was nothing here but green fields, buffaloes wallowing, goats grazing and the odd small dwelling. Now an estimated 40,000 people live in ramshackle, five-storey, brick and concrete homes, 10 to...

The family of an Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer has received threats and faced protests from her caste group and a section of the village panchayat in Haryana’s Bhiwani district for her decision to marry outside her caste. Neelam Sharma, who is currently posted at the Indian mission in Moscow, is set to marry IAS officer Kuldeep Yadav in Delhi on November 8. Yadav, whom Sharma met during TRAIning, is currently...