-Outlook Union minister for rural development Chaudhary Birendra Singh on the NREGA Union minister for rural development Chaudhary Birendra Singh has been facing considerable flak from activists who have been alleging that the ministry is holding back funds needed to give greater push to the NREGA. Excerpts from an interview with Lola Nayar: * There have been mixed reports from states about the performance of NREGA. In some states, NREGA is going very...

-PTI Mobile phone production in India has reached 100 million with leading companies setting up their manufacturing base in the country, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Saturday. “Today, I am happy to announce that in December, Rs. 1.14 lakh crore investment has come in electronic manufacturing in India. “We have attracted around 15 new mobile plants.” “Earlier in 2014, 68 million (mobile phones) were being manufactured and now 100 million are...

-The Telegraph Bangalore: Two Karnataka districts have shown the way forward by e-filing chargesheets through a dedicated network that automatically routes the documents to the respective courts in tamper-proof form. The pilot project that started in 2014 has thrown up new possibilities in the way the judiciary and police function, with thousands of chargesheets having been e-filed from Mysore and Mandya. The state now plans to take the change to other districts. Around...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi now plans to reach out to day labourers and tribals like he did with farmers and Dalits last year, raising alleged dilution of the legal framework the UPA government had built for them. The Congress has drawn up a nationwide campaign against alleged dilution of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, which covers the lowest rungs of job seekers. It also plans to forcefully...

-The Hindu Now is a good time to debate the criteria which enables the government to keep secrets instead of making everything public. On January 23, Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered on his promise and released 100 files on Subhas Chandra Bose in the presence of the freedom fighter’s family, which has persisted with its demand for declassifying all documents that could shed light on his mysterious disappearance and probable death in...