-The Indian Express The Rural Development Ministry has washed its hands of the matter while the RGI too seems reluctant to claim ownership. Amid growing demands to release the caste figures compiled as part of the Socio Economic and Caste Census, various government authorities having been passing the buck to one another. Officials have been saying the caste data, compiled from the first such census since 1931, is part of a...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Six of the 30 MPs on the joint parliamentary committee examining the land acquisition bill appear undecided, with the BJP hoping to woo them and gain a majority on the panel. The score is now tied 12-12, which means the government needs the support of at least four of the six remaining members, who have so far kept their cards close to their chest. These half-dozen are from the...

Samata started working in a small tribal hamlet in 1987 with a group of tribal and rural youth, to mobilize tribal communities against exploitation by outsiders and by government. Samata was formally registered as a non government organization in 1990. Samata operates across a broad spectrum of action, from organizing grassroots campaigns in the communities of north coastal Andhra Pradesh to creating international support networks of human rights and indigenous...

-The Hindu But Tamil films are refreshingly different. Just six of the lead characters in the nearly 300 Bollywood movies released over the last two years belonged to a backward caste, an analysis of data by The Hindu shows. In contrast, a substantial number of popular Tamil movies of 2013 and 2014 had backward caste lead characters. For an insight into the depiction of caste in Bollywood, The Hindu analysed all Hindi movies released...

-NDTV Raisen, Madhya Pradesh:  A toilet scam has apparently been flourishing in Madhya Pradesh's Raisen district. This was the conclusion the state government came to, after disbursing nearly 1 crore over the last three years under the State's Samagra Swachta Abhiyaan, sources told NDTV. On paper the district has 4000 toilets -- only a fraction of them can be found on the ground. "The Sub Divisional Magistrate has served notices to 44 sarpanchs,...