-The Hindu Earlier, under the ECI guideline 16.6, only the VVPAT slips from one EVM in every Assembly segment/constituency was subjected to physical verification. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday increased voter verified paper audit trial (VVPAT) verification to five random Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in each Assembly segment/constituency. In case of general Elections, VVPAT slips of five EVMs in each Assembly segment of a Parliamentary Constituency would be subject to physical...

-The Hindu Unable to sustain their primary occupation, many are said to have begun migrating to cities to work as daily-wage labourers COIMBATORE: KM Ramagoundar, president of the Tamizhaga Vivasayigal Sangam and a farmer based out of Karugur, about 25 km from Krishnagiri, is a frustrated man these days. “Even the so-called big farmers, who own five or six acres, have started going to Bengaluru, where they are working as daily-wage labourers. This...

-The Hindu Agrarian crisis has not dimmed Prime Minister Modi’s appeal The sugarcane farmers gathered around a tree-shaded charpoy at Bhainswala village, a few kilometres from Shamli town in western Uttar Pradesh, share a common litany of woes — late payments, high input costs, the stray cattle menace — for which most blame the policies of the BJP government. But when the discussion veers around to the Lok Sabha election, pandemonium breaks out...

-IANS New Delhi: The Election Commission (EC) should treat social media like any other media and all rules that apply to the media during the model code of conduct should also apply to social media, former Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi said on Friday. Quraishi was speaking at an event where a group of former bureaucrats and organisations, like Common Cause, Free Internet Foundation, Association for Democratic Reforms and Free Software Movement...

-The Economic Times The group said the threat posed by digital platforms to the integrity of the upcoming Elections has assumed “alarming proportions”. A group of rights organisations and citizens — including Internet Freedom Foundation, Common Cause and former chief election commissioners N Gopalaswami and SY Quraishi — have “made an urgent appeal” to the Election Commission to rein in digital platforms to ensure integrity of the general Elections. The group, which also...