(Application deadline Monday December 31, 2012) Inclusive Media for Change, a CSDS-based initiative invites applications from journalists in English and Hindi for Inclusive Media Fellowships 2012-13. The Fellowships are given to bring spotlight on Rural Development and to promote democratic social change, particularly through empowerment, decentralization, convergence and good use of existing development schemes by Panchayats and local bodies. The Inclusive Media for Change runs a clearing house of ideas, information...

-The Hindustan Times In an attempt that could help UPA 2 tide over the anti-incumbency factor and yield political dividends in 2014, the rural development ministry is proposing to cover 60 lakh additional below-poverty-line (BPL) people under its pension schemes. The proposals, including enhanced pension payouts, would cost the central exchequer an additional Rs. 9,500 crore. The recommendations of a committee under the ministry, if accepted, would add to the 260 lakh beneficiaries...

-The Hindu Over 260 houses torched, police arrest 90 persons Three colonies of Dalits (of the Adi-Dravida community) near Naikkankottai in Dharmapuri district of western Tamil Nadu remained benumbed on Thursday by the fury unleashed on them by a rampaging mob of caste Hindus on Wednesday. As many as 268 dwellings – huts, tiled-roof and one or two-room concrete houses–were torched by the mob after a caste Hindu man, Nagarajan, committed suicide over...

-NDTV Over-ruling the objections of India's defence forces, the government has said that 4500 canteens in the Navy, Air Force and Army will be reviewed by the national auditor CAG. The canteen's run by the armed forces qualify as the biggest retail chain of the country which serve all serving and retired personnel of the three services. At the top of the chain are the 34 outlet of the Canteen and Stores...

-The Times of India DHARMAPURI: Outraged by the suicide of a man who felt humiliated after his daughter married a dalit boy in secret, a mob of non-dalits went on the rampage in three villages of Dharmapuri district, looting and burning houses of dalits late on Wednesday, police said. The 2,500-strong mob set ablaze 148 houses in Natham, Anna Nagar and Kondampatti villages. They claimed that the "humiliation" caused by the marriage...