In a move that could benefit more than 62 lakh school teachers in government, municipal and private unaided schools, the Centre plans to provide them with life insurance and health insurance at highly subsidized rates. The HRD ministry has already held detailed discussions with LIC, with the public sector insurance giant coming up with an "indicative scheme" with two components. The first component on life insurance would be available for...

In the absence of whole-hearted steps to implement the provisions effectively, the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 is falling short of expectations.  The Delhi High Court ruled recently that a woman can also be held liable under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005. This the court did on the basis of the interpretation that ‘relatives' included not only male but also female members of...

The Central Information Commission has imposed a penalty of Rs 15,000 on senior officials of IIT-Kharagpur for delay in providing information to a professor of the Institute. The transparency panel has also directed the engineering institute to pay a compensation of Rs 5,000 to Professor Rajeev Kumar for the loss and detriment suffered by him. "For two simple and straightforward queries, the complainant had to wait for almost five months.This may...

The Human Resource Development Ministry has refuted allegations of misuse of grants provided by the U.K. Department for International Development (DFID) for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), as reported in the media. In a statement issued here, the Ministry said expenditure under the SSA was incurred as per well-defined norms articulated in the SSA Framework of Implementation and the Manual of Financial Management and Procurement. Up to 6 per cent of...

The government on Tuesday expressed shock over reports of embezzlement of UK grants in Sarva Siksha Abhiyan scheme and said that the flagship programme follows "rigorous and robust monitoring system". A day after the British government launched an inquiry into the alleged misuse of its funds under SSA, Department of School Education and Literacy under HRD Ministry here said it will write to the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of External...