-The Hindustan Times Angry that unaided minority schools have been exempt from the Right to Education (RTE) Act, the Forum for Fairness in Education (FFIE) plans to file a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Bombay high court. FFIE is challenging a notification exempting schools from reserving seats for children from economically weak families. The latest RTE notification, uploaded on a government website on March 20, said unaided minority schools will not...

-The Business Standard Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi professor and development economist Reetika Khera tells Sreelatha Menon that the food Bill may not be a leap ahead, but it is certainly a step forward * The food Bill is a guarantee for lifelong dependence on government doles. As an economist, can one defend such a policy? The food Bill should be seen as an investment. "Labour" is India's most important asset. In that sense,...

-PTI A woman, who had alleged that she was raped and had consequently conceived, was allowed to abort the baby by the Delhi High Court which termed it as "extremely traumatic" and asked AIIMS to preserve the foetus for conducting DNA test. "To carry a child in her womb by a woman as a result of conception through an act of rape is extremely traumatic, humiliating and psychologically devastating," Justice S P...

-The Hindu As the world observed World Water Day last week, Bolivian water activist Pablo Solon narrates how his countrymen forced the repeal of a water privatisation attempt by the government What began as an ordinary citizen’s protest against water privatisation laid out the path for a bigger revolution that eventually paved way for Bolivia’s first indigenously elected government. With worldwide discussions for sustainable management of fresh water resources gaining ground in a...

-The Times of India LUCKNOW: The Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh has made women from Poor rural background direct beneficiaries ofLohiaGrameenAwasYojana and has allotted Rs520 crore for the scheme to provide shelter to homeless rural populace of the state, which would be launched today. War widows need not even confirm to the income criteria to be beneficiaries under the scheme. People who are not yet on the list of BPL survey...