Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa on Monday announced that all rural households and rural local bodies would be provided with internet connections at a low cost. They will also get internet protocol television (IPTV)through Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable Corporation. A new company called Tamil Nadu FibreNet Corporation would be formed for this purpose.

Jayalalithaa said in the assembly, "the government would implement the Centre's broadband project BharatNet linking more than 12,500 rural local bodies in the state at an investment of Rs 3,000 crore. The TACTV has received internet service provider licence (ISP) from the Centre and has also signed a pact with Indian RailTel for providing high-speed broadband internet services".

BJP and allies clinch seat-sharing pact for Bihar assembly polls
BJP president Amit Shah on Monday said that the party has clinched a seat-sharing pact with its allies for the Bihar assembly polls. LJP would fight on 40, RSLP on 23 and former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi's HAM will contest on 20 seats, Amit Shah said.

15% IAS officers claim to own no land, house
Indian bureaucracy does not commnd resporct because of perception that the officials are corrupt and inefficient. But the figures are surprising. Of the around 3,600 Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers who have been filing immovable property returns (IPR) since 2010, 559 or 14.5% declared that they have no property, whether land, building or house, in their submission to the centre for the financial year 2014. Former chief information commissioner and erstwhile bureaucrat Wajahat Habibullah told Economic Times that, "it is possible for 14.5% of the officers not to have any property but I won't think it is credible. It is a somewhat high number for officials or their spouses not to have any property." He added that officers at the beginning of their career may not have property but by mid-career, most of them did.

SC will review ban on chief ministers' in advertisements
A ban on the photos of chief ministers in government ads may be revoked. The supreme court has today agreed to reconsider its earlier verdict which said only photos of the prime minister, president and chief justice of India are permitted in publicity funded by taxpayers. The decision to reconsider its verdict of May is based on an appeal from four states - Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Assam - none of which are governed by the BJP, which is in power at the Centre. The court will hear the case next on October 13

Pressure to be online 24x7 taking toll on the young
Young people are experiencing depression, anxiety, and sleep deprivation because they feel a constant need to be on social media sites 24x7, according to new research. Professors from the University of Glasgow questioned over 460 respondents aged between 11 and 17 regarding their overall — but specifically night-time — social media use, and also measured sleep quality, self esteem, and emotional investment in the sites. Results showed how a constant need to make themselves available online was making teens feel tired down, and anxious as they struggled to keep in-the-loop with what was happening on the internet. One of the researchers, Dr Heather Cleland Woods, described how adolescence can be a period of increased vulnerability for the onset of depression and anxiety, with poor sleep quality contributing to this.

AI likely to ground 125 overweight cabin crew members
Air India is likely to ground around 125 cabin crew for their failure to maintain weight requirements as prescribed by aviation regulator DGCA. Some of them may be assigned ground duty, while others can be offered voluntary retirement, Air India sources said. The national carrier had given an opportunity to around 600 "overweight" cabin crew members last year to "shape up" within a stipulated time frame to continue flight duty .

Deutsche Bank cuts Sensex Dec 2015 target to 28,000 from 31,000
Deutsche Bank cut its December 2015 Sensex target to 28,000 from 31,000 earlier on concerns over global growth, the bank said in a report on Friday, the second revision by the bank this fiscal year. “The simultaneous combination of structural commodity deflation, sharp compression in global trade growth, deep EM (emerging markets) currency depreciation and the large dollarization of EM debt has raised the risks of an EM contagion (not our base view or house forecast),” Deutsche analysts Abhay Laijawala and Abhishek Saraf said in a note.

Modi meets officials of power utilities to discuss mounting debt
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today met the top brass of power utilities, particularly electricity distribution companies (discoms), to review their performance and discuss the issue of their burgeoning debt. The combined debt of power distribution companies (discoms) stands at over Rs 3 lakh crore. Faced with acute financial stress, many of these are unable to buy power. The speculation is rife that the government is working out a bailout package for the debt-ridden discoms so that the government can achieve the goal of providing power to all.

Somnath Bharti's anticipatory bail plea dismissed
A court here on Monday dismissed anticipatory bail plea of AAP leader and former Delhi law minister Somnath Bharti, who has been booked for domestic violence. Bharti was on Thursday named in a First Information Report (FIR) filed under several sections of the Indian Penal code (IPC), including domestic violence and attempt to murder, at Dwarka North police station in west Delhi. Police said they filed the FIR following the June 10 complaint of Bharti's wife Lipika Mitra.