On the whole, India’s censor board was fine with the gritty film “Udta Punjab,” or “Flying Punjab,” about the wave of heroin addiction washing over that north Indian state. There were just a few things to address — such as removing every reference to Punjab, including the word in the movie’s title and a signpost shown in an opening sequence, so that viewers left the theater believing they had seen a movie set in a fictitious land.   read more

It is a sad commentary on the few opportunities available in Chhattisgarh when 75,000 people, including engineers and university graduates, apply for 30 vacancies as peons (office boys) in the state government. This large number shocked even officials, who were ill-prepared to conduct an examination test for so many. They were forced to cancel the examination scheduled this Sunday, August 30.   read more

This is a rags to riches story – and back again – courtesy the State Bank of India (SBI). Urmila Yadav, who works as a domestic help in Kanpur, recently found she was one of India's richest women when the Rs 2,000 ($32) in her bank account suddenly turned into Rs 95,71,16,98,647 ($1.5 billion).   read more

A decade has passed since the landmark Right to Information (RTI) Act came into effect, providing ordinary citizens with the power to demand details from their government on its functioning and its decisions. Yet the bureaucracy still finds innovative ways to deny this information, as Kumar Ram Krishna, a history teacher in Delhi, found out recently when he was asked to cough up Rs 80,000 ($1,257) for the information he wanted.   read more

A senior bureaucrat in Telangana has sued Outlook magazine for describing her as "eye candy". Smita Sabharwal, additional secretary to the Telangana chief minister, said she found the remarks against her "sexist" and "demoralising." In response, Outlook said it was a satirical piece in its regular 'Deep Throat' column. Nevertheless, the magazine has removed it from its website.   read more