-The Hindu   The services will enable transfer, application procedures to be brought to one's door Last Christmas Eve, 35 people in a remote village of Jharkhand received a unique present. They became the first Indians to access their Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme bank accounts on their doorstep, having had their identities authenticated through their Aadhaar numbers. They are among the earliest beneficiaries of the next phase of the ambitious —...

Before filing papers, prospective candidates enter into a tacit deal with media, says EC   Even as it is tightening the noose around the media-candidates' nexus to thwart “paid news” instances through its district media committees and expenditure observers, the Election Commission has come to know about new strategies worked out by them to break the rules. “We have received reports that such ‘paid news' transactions had taken place in some instances in...

-The Telegraph Income tax officials today searched the house and two dozen properties of a liquor baron said to be close to Mayawati, the simultaneous raids apparently throwing up a chest that needed gas-cutters to prise open. TV reports claimed the chest — found in the basement of a Noida mall said to be owned by Gurdeep Singh Chadha — could be stashed with notes worth over Rs 100 crore, but late...

At a time when paper and plastic money is the pivot of pecuniary transactions, a postgraduate in statistics from Ranchi University has turned the age-old barter system into the bedrock of a unique cradle in a hamlet on the outskirts of the capital. Students of Bhavna Vikas Vidyalaya at Konki village in Kanke block, some 20km from Ranchi, are basking in academic glory in lieu of vegetables. Yes, you heard that...

In Jharkhand, an assertive populace is making sure that the dealers do not hijack the PDS. UNTIL a few years ago, the public distribution system (PDS) in Jharkhand appeared broken and beyond repair. The National Sample Survey data for 2004-05 suggest that more than 80 per cent of the PDS grain was sold in the open market at that time. A field survey in Ranchi and Dumka districts from June...