-The Indian Express April 1 marked the third anniversary of the passage of the Right of Children for Free and Compulsory Education (RTE). There is little argument that the implementation of the RTE in these three years has been less than satisfactory. Deadlines for the enforcement of input norms - infrastructure, pupil-teacher ratios - have come and gone and potentially game-changing provisions, like 25 per cent reservation for economically weaker sections...

-The Times of India The CPI (Maoist) has formed its own elite training 'institute' in the Dandakaranya forests, a Naxalite bastion, to transform tribal cadres into Communist professionals equipped to handle tasks related to the Central Committee, the outfit's apex decision-making body. The Buniyadi Communist Training School (BCTS), a brainchild of CPI (Maoist) top gun Ganapathy, has been churning out professionally-trained Communists since 2009 with basic military Skills and knowledge of Hindi,...

-The Times of India     The three-year compliance period for the Right to Education (RTE) Act is just over. What has the Act accomplished? Sadly, not very much that is positive. A key provision in the law abolishes board examinations and grants automatic promotion to each child to the next grade at the end of the academic year. It also requires the award of a diploma to all at the end of eight...

-The Economic Times Six years after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh first urged India Inc to pro-actively offer employment to the less privileged sections of society, the government has not been able to walk the talk. A special recruitment drive initiated by it has failed to meet targets. Under the government's affirmative drive launched in 2008 and focused purely on offering jobs to candidates from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes...

-The Hindu Considering the knowledge of English as a mark of social advancement and that of the vernacular as backwardness disenfranchises significant sections of society In a village in Ghazipur district that borders Varanasi, there is a young man who teaches English and "personality development" to the sons and daughters of local shopkeepers, farmers and truck drivers. The classes are held from 6 to 8 in the morning and again in the...