No celebrity visits or satellite banking system? Never mind, bring on ‘suppat’. Unlike Doba, three other villages of Lohardaga district may not have been lucky enough to get Reserve Bank of India’s smart card based satellite-banking system. But they have a ‘suppat’ surprise up their sleeves. ‘Suppat’ or ‘super’ in tribal dialect, is also the name of a rural chain of mom-and-pop stores initiated by a private party, Dynamic Tarang Pvt Ltd,...

The withdrawal on the limitation of number of words when asking for information, restructuring of fees, halting provisions to withdraw an appeal under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, are some of the amendments in the RTI rules that have been adopted by the Working Group on Transparency, Accountability and Governance under the National Advisory Council (NAC). These amendments are likely to be placed before a full house of the...

Chief minister Arjun Munda is keen to replicate the efficiency of the public distribution system (PDS) in Chhattisgarh under fellow BJP leader Raman Singh, to ensure better delivery of foodgrains for Jharkhand’s below poverty line (BPL) families. Speaking exclusively to The Telegraph, Munda said food and civil supplies department principal secretary Rajbala Verma had recently visited Chhattisgarh to assess how the Raman Singh government had been smoothly doling out foodgrain to...

The Supreme Court on Thursday has asked for a thorough investigation into utilization of NREGA funds by the Orissa government and asked why the probe into it be not entrusted to the CBI. The Centre said it has already requested CBI to do so. But, it also has admitted that states are struggling to implement NREGA-mandated schemes. Earlier, livid at the allegation of diversion of funds sent by the Centre to states...

If you thought the recent spate of violent crimes against women in the national capital was an aberration, take a look at this. A poll of women in Delhi and Gurgaon has revealed that almost two-thirds feel unsafe in these cities aspiring to be considered world cities. Incidentally, it is in Delhi that a larger proportion of women feel unsafe (70%) compared to Gurgaon's 65%. This feeling of being unsafe is...