-The Indian Express After tasting success with its free bicycle scheme for school-going girls, the Bihar government is planning a freebie in tune with the times - a tablet PC - ahead of the 2014 elections. While other state governments have so far targeted the student community with free laptops and tablets, the Nitish Kumar government is working on an ambitious Rs 8,000 crore scheme to provide tablets to digitally illiterate...

-The Hindu A unique cell phone-based networking system in Chhattisgarh helps Adivasi Gonds share local news and air grievances. Deep in the jungles of Chhattisgarh, a straightforward, earthy man named Naresh Bunkar, field co-ordinator of the Adivasi Santha Manch, picks up his mobile phone and dials +918050068000, a long-distance number in Bangalore. He immediately cuts off and waits. Within seconds, he gets a call from the dialled number, and he hears a...

-Newsclick.in Caste discrimination percolates down to the food plates for Musahar community in Madhepura district of Bihar reports Neha Dixit "The mahant of the Shankar Math told me to stay away from ultra-Left people the day I questioned the Collector about the hunger deaths in my village," recounts Prabhansh Manjhi. Prabhansh is from the Musahaar community in Madhepura district of Bihar. Estimated to be 2.3 million in the country, they are Mahadalits, one...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Fourteen non-Congress and non-BJP parties on Wednesday sought to present themselves as the bulwark against "communalism" ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections although they said the mobilization is not intended to be a "Third Front". The meeting was attended by Sharad Pawar's NCP, which with nine MPs is the largest Congress partner in Parliament, along with Left parties and regional outfits like SP, BJD, AIADMK...

-Deccan Chronicle Hyderabad: The rising prices are driving people from the lower income groups in the city into extreme poverty. These groups earn about Rs 5,000 per month and most of it goes towards house rent and food, leaving nothing for their children's education and health needs. The rising prices of rice, cereals, vegetables are fo-rcing the urban poor to cut back on the quantity and quality of their food resulting in food...