In spite of all the claims made by the State Election Commission (SEC) to ensure peaceful elections, violence marked the third phase of polling in the panchayat elections. Two persons died on Friday, taking the toll in panchayat poll-related violence to 26. Two others, meanwhile, died after consuming liquor allegedly distributed by a candidate for the post of pradhan in Bijnor district’s Nahtaur. The State Election Commission said by 6 pm nearly...

The Andhra Pradesh Police on Friday said it has arrested three people working with SKS Microfinance and Spandana on a complaint of harassment by a borrower, and might book the companies' respective promoters Vikram Akula and Padmaja Reddy under a new Ordinance to check coercive methods of loan recovery. The borrower, Ammulu, filed the complaint with the Yemmiganur police station in Kurnool district, about 270 km from Hyderabad, last night. A...

Barely a week after food and civil supplies minister Nazrul Islam admitted to leakages in the public distribution system (PDS) in Assam, food grains subsidised for the poor are popping up in eateries. Since Monday night, police in eastern Assam raided a couple of dhabas or roadside eateries and seized 250 quintals of rice, 28 quintals of wheat and six quintals of sugar. These commodities earmarked for fair price shops under...

The UID project has both ‘security' and ‘developmental' dimensions. The former leads to an invasive state; the latter leaves us with a retreating state. Is identity the “missing link” in India's efforts to rise as an “inclusive” economic superpower? Can an identity-linked and technology-based solution change the face of governance in India? Given the euphoria around the Unique Identification (UID) project, one is tempted to believe so. However, a careful look...

An ' untouchability fence' that prevented Dalits from using roads in a hamlet near Krishnagiri in western Tamil Nadu was pulled down after it was brought to the notice of the police and revenue authorities. The barbed wire fence put up by non-Dalits around an elementary school at Ittikkal Agaram in Krishnagiri district prevented eight Dalit families of the locality from using an approach road leading out of the village for...