News Digest: Debt-ridden Indore man puts up his wife for 'sale' on Facebook

Here are some important reports from the biggest newspapers of India:

1. Debt-ridden Indore man puts up his wife for 'sale' on Facebook

A debt-ridden husband in Indore allegedly put his wife for ‘sale' on Facebook for Rs 1 lakh and said the buyer could do ‘anything' with her, prompting the police to register a case against him.

The accused, Dilip Mali, said he was innocent and that someone hacked into his account to put up the post, reported Hindustan Times.

He had not lo gged onto Facebook for the past six months, he added.

But an FIR against him said Mali posted his wife's biodata and picture along with his mobile number. The post has since been deleted.

2. Mumbai's 1st test-tube baby is now a mom

Thirty years after she made history , Mumbai's first test-tube baby, Harsha Chavda-Shah, delivered a child of her own on Monday.

The baby boy was delivered using Cesarean-section by the same team of doctors who had helped Harsha's parents conceive her using in vitro fertilisation techniques in 1986.

Harsha and her accountant husband Divyapal Shah told The Times of India that the baby , born on the auspicious day of Shivratri, was a gift from God.

3. Tunnel under Delhi Vidhan Sabha ruffles assembly

A tunnel-like structure below the floor of Vidhan Sabha, where the 70-member assembly sits during its sessions, has started a lot of speculation.

There is no clarity about the history , age or length of the tunnel that lies directly under the well of the House, reported The Times of India.

Delhi assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel said that he will not let this intriguing discovery remain a blind spot. Plans are now afoot to get the department of archaeology to undertake a study to solve the mystery . The Vidhan Sabha is a heritage building that dates back to 1911.

4. For first time, tobacco use is down in country: Family health survey

The use of tobacco, the leading cause of preventable death, has for the first time begun to decline across country.

Data from the first phase of National Family Health Survey released by the Union health ministry shows a dip in the use of all forms of tobacco, among men and women, in the past decade, said a report in The Times of India.

Doctors are hailing the results as one of the biggest successes in public health.At least 11 of the 13 states in the report have reported a decline in the numbers between 2005-06 and 2015-16.

5. Akshara S Kumar overcame boycott as a child, now faces it once again in college

HIV-positive and discriminated against as a child, Akshara S Kumar thought she had put that behind her 12 years ago. She revealed her condition to her friends in college, only to find herself boycotted all over again.

Akshara, 20, a first-year BA student of psychology at Wadi Huda Institute of Research and Advanced Studies in Kannur, has been asked by the college authorities to stay out of her hostel after two boarders left.

As a result, she has skipped classes too since February 26, reported The Indian Express.

6. Now at work, five ATMs that dispense medicines

Their front end essentially resembles the cold drinks/potato chips dispensers one sees at airports. What they will dispense, however, is free drugs based on a prescription — unless they refer the patient to a doctor.

Five healthcare ATMs have come up in four states — MP, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh — under a Health Ministry pilot that combines telemedicine with a rudimentary free drugs programme, said a report in The Indian Express.

The ministry is hoping these would tide over the massive shortage of doctors in the country and also the risks of pilferage that free drugs programmes are fraught with.

7. Mission Raftaar: Rajdhanis, Shatabdis to run with 2 engines to cut time

Two engines, instead of one, will drive each Rajdhani and Shatabdi train soon to give them additional speed and cut journey time significantly.

While one engine will haul the train from the front, the second engine will be attached to the rear, giving the extra push to significantly reduce time taken by the train to accelerate and decelerate.

According to The Indian Express, this is a new project under Suresh Prabhu's Mission Raftaar, which envisages increasing the speeds of existing trains with innovative, low-cost, or cost-neutral engineering solutions.

8. Not just Lok Sabha, women absent from startups too

India's new-age companies have an age-old problem. Like their older counterparts, they do not have enough women in leadership roles. The Economic Times commissioned a study of 187 startups in collaboration with talent assessment and analytics firm Jombay on Women in Startups and the findings are revealing.

Of all 500 founders at these 187 startups, there are just 39 women, or 8%. None of these startups has a woman as an externally hired CEO or leader.

All the women CEOs in the survey happen to be cofounders or founders of the startup. And only 2% of these startups have hired women as chief operating officers.

9. Indian companies bullish on hiring, but job outlook not so rosy

Nearly four of every 10 employers in India expect to make additions to manpower in the April-June quarter, according to a survey, in which the country continued to lead the world in terms of employment outlook for the third consecutive quarter.

About 48% of the 5,203 employers in India surveyed in the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey said they expected to go in for recruitment in the first quarter of 2016-17. After factoring in variations, the net employment outlook stands at 38%.

A report in The Economic Times, this represents a decline from net employment outlook of 42% in the survey for the January-March quarter which was based on responses of 5,065 Indian employers.

10. Food courts, dispensaries & malls to dot National Highways soon

National highways across the country will soon offer wayside amenities such as shopping malls, food courts, dispensaries as well as car servicing centres after every 50 kilometres.

The government has issued a policy for such facilities to be built under public-private partnership (PPP) and engineering, construction and procurement (EPC) models.

The policy offers incentives for petrol pump owners if they provide such facilities on their land, reported The Economic Times.