A recent report of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) brings forth the dichotomy between digital divide and India’s transition towards a cashless economy. The rural-urban divide in access to computer and internet is quite stark, according to the report entitled 'Key Indicators of Household Social Consumption on Education in India, July 2017 to June 2018'.   The 75th round National Sample Survey (NSS) report on education finds that...

-The Telegraph NRC, NPR emblematic of our hypocrisy that turns a blind eye to those persecuted by us here Hatingaram’s life is less “here”, more “there”. Here — his village. There — in the open, across the country, under the sky. The ‘Raika’ — a semi-nomadic pastoralist from Rajasthan — are always on the move, lock, stock and barrel. Literally. In his home state, he is a near-absent citizen; in Madhya Pradesh, a...

-The Hindu MHRD data also indicates variation in size of loans disbursed, with OBCs, SCs and STs receiving lower amounts on average Around 70% of the education loans disbursed in the country appear to be going to upper caste students, data on a government-funded surety scheme for educational loans furnished by Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) in the Lok Sabha has indicated. The data provided was on the Credit Guarantee Fund Scheme...

-The Indian Express PS Krishnan was a rare bureaucrat who sought to reform government for marginalised PS Krishnan, who left us on November 10, was an extraordinary combination of the bureaucrat-reformer-activist. His was a life driven by single-minded devotion to the cause of the deprived and exploited. From his student days in his native Kerala and later, as a member of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in the Andhra Pradesh cadre —...

  In the month of June this year, encephalitis related deaths in Bihar's Muzaffarpur district grabbed the headlines. Actually, most of the children, who were admitted or died at Shri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH), hailed from East Champaran, Vaishali, Sitamarhi and Samastipur apart from Muzaffarpur. Unfortunately, till recently official data on the number of cases and deaths related to Japanese Encephalitis (JE) and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) was unavailable for...