-The Deccan Chronicle   In a bid to help villagers find work, especially in drought-hit Mandals, the authorities are taking up several works under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in Godavari districts. In a bid to help villagers find work, especially in drought-hit Mandals, the authorities are taking up several works under the National Rural Employ-ment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in Godavari districts. The government has declared 14 Mandals in East Godavari and...

Its eye on the UP Assembly elections, the Centre is going to package the reservation for backward Muslims being planned out of the 27 per cent OBC quota as part of a series of reservation measures, covering a large bracket of beneficiaries. Apart from designating the quota for Muslims as part of a larger reservation for “minorities”, the UPA government is planning to promise a quota for “the most backward”...

About 55 people were killed in a massive fire that broke out at the AMRI hospital in south Kolkata early Friday, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee said. "Quick action will be taken against the hospital after proper inquiry," she added. According to hospital sources, death toll may rise in the hospital fire incident in Kolkata. Nearly 160 patients were admitted in the Dhakuria building, where fire broke out in the wee hours. Only...

Indian politicians appear too sensitive on how they're portrayed online. Why else would government agencies inundate Google - with an estimated 100 million users in India - with requests to remove content, especially those showing political leaders in bad light. Kapil Sibal's suggestion for pre-screening online content may have sparked controversy today, but when it comes to post-screening law enforcement agencies in India have been active. They regularly approach Internet service...

-IANS   Shops and commercial establishments were closed in Himachal Pradesh's major towns Thursday as workers of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) as well as traders protested the decision to allow foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail.  However, there was no report of traffic being held up due to the strike. There was also no report of violence anywhere, an official at the police headquarters here...