The electronic Post office launched this week has brought the familiar red and grey counters to your drawing room, making tiring trips and queuing up things of the past. The website www.ePostoffice.gov.in offers money order service, stamps and e-tracking of registered Posts to start with. It creates a virtual Post office on computer screens and leads customers to the counters. The decision to launch an electronic Post office was part of the...

About one crore girls vanish every year through foeticide or other forms of killing, Governor of Uttarakhand Margaret Alva said here on Wednesday. She was addressing a seminar on women's rights here organised by Congress leader Janet D Souza's non-governemental organisation ‘Parivartan.' “We call it the disappearing sex. One crore girls die every year or are not allowed [to be born],” Ms. Alva said. On the issue of ‘honour killings,' she...

Tribals of Gujarat are all set to get a new voice. With only Ganpat Vasava, the BJP MLA from Mangrol, filing his nomination for the speaker's Post in the state assembly, he will be elected unopposed on Thursday. This will not only give Gujarat's its first tribal speaker, but at 39 years, he will also be the youngest in the state's history. The Post fell vacant after the last speaker...

At least 100,000 trade unionists marched through New Delhi on Wednesday in a protest against high food prices and unemployment, piling pressure on an administration under fire over corruption scandals. The demonstration was the biggest in New Delhi in years and included members of a trade union linked to the ruling Congress party, reflecting disquiet within the party over food inflation which hit a high of over 18 percent last December. It...

A renewal of concern about fiscal management in India is partly due to the resurgence of populism even in a Post-election year. Instead of working to reduce the subsidy bill, various political elements seem to be pushing for even higher subsidies. The recent decision of a group of ministers to absorb higher import and production costs of fertilisers by raising subsidy, rather than increasing prices, is just one example. Some...