Failure to notify rules under the Act will deprive it of Central funds The Centre has warned Karnataka and several other states that their failure to notify rules for implementation of the Right to Education Act (RTE) would cost it funding for opening of new schools in the State under Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA). If RTE rules were not notified soon, the Ministry of Human Resource Development will also deny the states...

-BBC   More than a million people have been displaced and at least 16 killed as floods in India's Orissa state submerged entire villages, officials say. Heavy monsoon rains submerged about 2,600 villages across 19 districts. Several rivers, including the Mahanadi, are overflowing and flood waters have severed a number of key road links. In Pakistan, the UN has begun relief operations after weeks of rain affected millions in the south. At least 199 people have...

The Karnataka government, which is in the thick of controversy over acquisition of land for several big-ticket investors, is in no mood to accept certain changes proposed in the new Land Acquisition and Resettlement & Rehabilitation Bill tabled in Parliament last week. Instead, the government is in the process of revamping its existing land acquisition policy. The state government is not agreeable to the 80 per cent consent norm proposed in...

The Planning Commission has approved irrigation projects worth an estimated Rs.2 trillion over the past year-and-a-half to bolster India’s food security, but analysts say most of the money will not be utilized because of corruption and poor execution. A total 141 projects costing Rs.1.3 trillion were cleared in 2010 alone, according to an internal Plan panel paper on investment clearance of flood control, major and medium irrigation projects and renovation and...

Public health experts blame it on government complacency THE World Health Organization has raised alarm over leprosy spreading across India. With the disease infecting about 120,000 people every year, the country is now the biggest contributor to the global leprosy burden, the UN body said in a press release. The Union health ministry had declared the disease, which causes lesions on the skin and attacks nerves in the hands and feet, often...