A rap on the knuckles from the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) for its failure to eradicate the shameful practice of manual scavenging in the country has prompted the government to consider amendments to the Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrine (Prohibition) Act, 1993 and see how the existing scheme for the rehabilitation of manual scavengers can be recast.

West Bengal Congress leaders are keen on a joint campaign with the Trinamul Congress to ride piggyback on Ms Mamata Banerjee to power, but party leaders from Tamil Nadu are not showing interest for such an exercise with the DMK for the coming electoral battle.

A war of words has erupted in the Bihar unit of the BJP with one section of the party expressing displeasure over chief minister Nitish Kumar’s adverse comment on “Ekta Yatra” undertaken by the youth wing of the Saffron party, while another group of state leaders asking the former to show restraint, as in alliance politics such attacks are unacceptable.

The eagerly awaited discussions over the Srikrishna Committee report on the controversial Telangana issue between the eight recognised political parties of Andhra Pradesh and the Union home ministry, in all probability, will take place in the first week of February.

Describing as “unfortunate” the detention of its senior leaders in Jammu, the BJP on Wednesday rubbished charges that it was playing politics over hoisting the national flag at Lal Chowk in Srinagar. The party said it could move the court against the “unconstitutional and illegal” stand taken by the Jammu and Kashmir administration to prevent its leaders from hoisting the national flag.

Kashmir Valley was tense on Wednesday as the authorities enforced a security clampdown to foil attempts by BJP activists and Muslim separatists to pour into Srinagar’s central square Lal Chowk.

London poet Jo Shapcott’s poetry collection, Of Mutability, which deals with her experience of breast cancer, has won the Costa Book of the Year.

Most dancers run into a period of time where life doesn’t allow them to follow their passion.

“You just can’t fake it in dance. You just cannot, however much you try,” she says with a tone of brevity in her voice.

Sunny Deol is hoping to ride the success wave of Yamla Pagla Deewana and revive his acting career.