-Down to Earth The administration, however, has not compensated other Mitanins’ work adequately and has thus been misusing their sense of social commitment 50-year-old Saraswati Kaushik’s day starts at 5 am. After preparing food for the family and an hour or two of farm work, she goes for home visits in her ‘para’ (locality) to check on pregnant mothers, infants, kids below five years of age, elderly people in need of treatment...

-PTI/ NDTV.com India Heat Wave: India Meteorological Department Director General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said northwest and west central parts of the country - Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana - will continue to experience above normal temperatures in May as well. New Delhi: Northwest and central India experienced their hottest April in 122 years, with average maximum temperatures reaching 35.9 and 37.78 degrees Celsius respectively, the weather office said on Saturday. Addressing a press conference,...

-The New Indian Express Poultry farming of this protein-rich black chicken paying rich dividends, reports Anuraag Singh MADHYA PRADESH: In many parts of the country, the colour black has been considered inauspicious. But in the forests of western Madhya Pradesh’s tribal-dominated Bheelanchal region, the same colour is ushering in fortune and prosperity in the lives of people who were once forced to work as labourers in adjoining Gujarat. Welcome to Jhabua, Alirajpur and...

-Newsclick.in The central government has raked in over Rs18 lakh crore from excise duties compared to Rs14 lakh crore from taxes by all state governments over the past eight years. Yet again, the government has tried to obfuscate the exorbitant petrol/diesel prices by blaming state governments. This time, it was the Prime Minister himself who blamed some Opposition-ruled states for not reducing taxes like the Value Added Tax (VAT) after the central...

-The Hindu What is the Opposition-ruled States’ stand on reduction of value added tax to bring down petrol prices?  The story so far: Petrol is retailing at more than ₹100 per litre across India. While rising crude oil prices have added to the burden, the primary reason behind the steep increase in pump fuel prices over the last few years is the gradually rising Central Government's excise duty component. Currently, for every...