-NDTV Jaipur: A court in Rajasthan today refused to interfere with a controversial government order that set educational prerequisites for contesting village polls, disappointing thousands of candidates who stand disqualified. The High Court said it "cannot interfere with the election process" and asked for more facts on the social impact of the ordinance or executive order that requires those fighting panchayat elections to have studied till Class 8 in school and...

-The Hindu They are gripped by fear of losing valuable lands, say villagers PENUMAKA (GUNTUR District/ Karnataka): The colourful rangoli patterns are missing, there is no smell of delicacies in their houses and the warmth and bonhomie which one sees on the eve of harvest festival are missing in villages resisting land-pooling. For families, living on fertile lands, tilling them and selling the produce at Vijayawada and other towns has been a way...

-The Hindu Alleviating poverty in India requires not only cash transfers but also other enabling changes Advocates of unconditional cash transfers claim that they can be both emancipatory and transformative. They argue that people are quite capable of making rational decisions. And that this kind of basic income support can improve their lives. I have no quarrel with the claim that we must trust the poor. Such suspicion is part of an elite...

-The Hindu India's small farmers have been struggling for centuries now and they need social and governmental action to change their future Of India's 121 million agricultural holdings, 99 million are with small and marginal farmers, with a land share of just 44 per cent and a farmer population share of 87 per cent. With multiple cropping prevalent, such farmers account for 70 per cent of all vegetables and 52 per cent...

-Down to Earth National Optic Fibre Network will connect all 250,000 gram panchayats of India by 2016 India's first high-speed rural broadband network, the National Optic Fibre Network (NOFN), was commissioned in Kerala's Idukki district on Monday. With this, the district, which has a large tribal and rural population, has become the country's first district to have all its village panchayats connected to NOFN, the world's largest rural broadband connectivity project through...