Casteism is one of the main causes holding up the country's progress Calling a person by caste name, if used with intent to insult, is an offence under SC/ST Act Society regarding a section of its own countrymen as inferior is simply unacceptable While deprecating the caste system in the country, the Supreme Court has declared illegal ‘khap panchayats' which often decree or encourage honour killings or other institutionalised atrocities against boys and...

In an effort to encourage individuals to help feed tens of thousands of hungry children across the world, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has created a social media platform through which people can share their favourite meals by making donations to the agency. The Internet portal, WeFeedback, engages supporters through an online “Feedback Calculator” that helps them to work out how many children they could feed if they donated...

Barring stray incidents, voting is peaceful during the first phase of the Bihar panchayat polls being held amidst tight security today. Polling is being held at 12,905 booths spread over 37 districts for 28,639 posts of village chiefs, sarpanchs, gram panchayat members, gram kutchery panch, panchayat samiti members and district board members. There are 1.43 lakh candidates in the fray. People queued up at polling booths despite a boycott call by Maoists....

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a petition seeking a direction to the census officer to disclose information on the “religion and faith” of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her children Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi. A Bench of Justices R.V. Raveendran and A.K. Patnaik dismissed the petition filed by the former DGP of Haryana, P.C. Wadhwa, challenging a judgment of the Punjab and Haryana High Court that held personal information...

Binayak Sen walked out of prison this evening to warm hugs from his mother, wife, daughters and friends but not before technical problems relating to his bail threatened to stall his release today. Eventually, the frail 61-year-old in kurta-pyjamas emerged from Raipur Central Jail a couple of hours later than expected, ending his four-month stay behind bars under a bail condition that requires him to surrender his passport. The rights activist, granted...