The BJP’s booth campaign strategy in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha election will also involve an outreach to the Other Backward Classes and the Dalits. The strategy, prepared and circulated among members of the party’s Uttar Pradesh unit, makes this clear. The note lays down an explicit requirement: …

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the “Swachhata Hi Seva” (“cleanliness is service”) campaign on Saturday, and took up a broom to clean a school named after Dalit icon B.R. Ambedkar. Union Ministers and BJP leaders and workers participated in similar exercises across the country. In a nearly two-hour video interaction …

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Electoral Officer Shaleen Kabra on Saturday announced the dates of elections to the urban local bodies in the State despite a boycott threat by the regional parties. The National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party described the decision as “unfortunate”. “The municipal polls will be conducted …

Seventy years ago, on September 17, 1948, at noon, Hyderabad ceased to exist as a princely state after a war that lasted all of 109 hours. It would have gone on for longer had India not been able to stymie the former kingdom’s attempts to procure weapons for a protracted …

Booming guns do not break the calm of the meadows of Tosa Maidan in Kashmir anymore. For seven decades, the lush meadows in Budgam district had lost their serenity as the Army used to practise artillery fire in the grass, leaving them out of bounds for locals and tourists. The …

The prices of petrol and diesel on Saturday touched a new high, with Mumbai recording the highest among the four big metros. Petrol cost Rs. 89.01 a litre in Mumbai and diesel Rs. 78.07, according to the daily price notification issued by state-owned oil marketing companies. In Delhi, the price …

U.S.-based campaign for Telangana ‘dials-a-village’ for ideas, hosts Facebook chat With the political battle heating up in Telangana in the run-up to the Assembly poll, a group of Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) based in the United States has taken it upon itself to come up with a ‘People’s Manifesto’ through public …

For every 10 seats available under the government’s low-cost flying scheme, as many as seven were grabbed by passengers since its launch last year, according to data accessed under the RTI (Right to Information) Act. Seat occupancy, also known as passenger load factor, is an indicator of demand on a …