When Asha Shinde left Aundh in Maharashtra’s dusty Satara district to pursue the dream of a career in Pune a couple of years ago, she demonstrated to her sleepy hometown a quiet defiance that it was unfamiliar with. On Tuesday, the shocked town was saying it is even less familiar with what happened two days ago. On Sunday morning, 25-year-old Asha was bludgeoned to death by her father in their home...

-IANS Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Friday expressed concern that the government's Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) is being seen as a "token sanitation campaign" and rued that women were demanding Mobile Phones but not toilets.  "Women demand Mobile Phones, they are not demanding toilets... Sanitation is the much more difficult issue," Ramesh said at the launch of Asia-Pacific Regional MDGs (Millenium Development Goals) Report 2011-12.  Ramesh said women's self-help groups (SHGs) should...

-The Hindu “If Shyam Benegal [film director] can come up with a toilet version of Manthan[movie that focused on milk cooperatives] we can break a certain social barrier” towards solving a problematic issue like sanitation, felt Jairam Ramesh, Union Minister of Rural Development. Launching the Asia-Pacific Millennium Development Goals report of the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific, Mr. Ramesh recalled howManthan that featured Smita Patil had changed women's...

-The Indian Express   The Unique Identification Authority (UIDAI) has begun two-pilot projects that would allow public sector oil marketers to make LPG transfers as well as getting mobile connectivity easier and transparent for consumers, UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani said.   "We are running a pilot programme in Mysore using the Aadhar platform for giving LPG connections. One could get an LPG connection through the use of an Aadhar number. Similarly, in Hyderabad, this...

The government is looking to track all Mobile Phone users. As per amendments made to operators’ licences, beginning May 31, operators would have to provide the Department of Telecommunications real-time details of users’ locations in latitudes and longitudes. Documents obtained by The Indian Express show that details shall initially be provided for mobile numbers specified by the government. Within three years, service providers will have to provide information on locations of all...