-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Gujarat government has hit out at rural development minister Jairam Ramesh over his charge that Modi regime has not been able to full spend central funds it received under the Watershed Programme. In a hard-hitting response, Gujarat government has accused the central minister of using incorrect and half backed data and resorting to 'chicanery', for political purpose. The state government said that Ramesh based cited...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Supreme Court has asked the Centre and states to pay employees with hearing impairment the same monthly transport allowance they have been paying the visually and physically challenged, saying the law didn't allow "discrimination" based on disabilities. The court's human touch came on a plea by the Deaf Employees Welfare Association, which said that except for Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, no other state was extending them the...

-The Indian Express Nagpur: Seven years after the suicide spiral in Vidarbha's six cotton-growing districts touched a record 1,449 in 2006, here's something to celebrate the new year with: the number of deaths fell to about half that number in 2013. The year gone by recorded only 752 suicides , although that number could rise by a few due to some late reporting. It also reflects a markedly improving suicide-to-population ratio considering...

-The Hindu The Aam Aadmi Party's proposal of 666 litres of free water a day raises the alarming prospect of further disadvantaging the already deprived sections of Delhi who get no piped water at all The Twelfth Five Year Plan has proposed a paradigm shift in water management in India. One of our key proposals relates to urban water. In many ways, it could be said that the crisis of water and...

-The Hindu A woman winning a close election against a man results in an increase in the ratio of female candidates fielded by major parties in the next election, according to a study A body of new data, including original analysis by The Hindu, is showing for the first time that women politicians are slowly but surely opening the door for other women politicians. The Hindu's analysis of data from the 2013 Assembly...