Bangalore-based Foundation of Biotechnology Awareness and education (FBAE) has asked the government to lift the indefinite moratorium imposed on commercial introduction of Bt brinjal in the country by the ministry of environment and forest (MoEF). It stated that the indefinite moratorium has created a 'regulatory uncertainty' on the development of all genetically engineered crops which are at the various stages of development in the country. Stating that the environment ministry is strongly...

It isn't too much of a stretch to say that India is made up of many nations. A comparison of state-level and country-level data from the newly released multi-dimensional poverty index shows that while Kerala and Goa are at a similar level of development as 'middle-income countries' like Indonesia, Jharkhand and Bihar are similar to 'least-developed countries' like the Democratic Republic of Congo. Earlier this month, the new MPI measure...

As it stands, the Right to education Act has several flaws that will prevent its efficacious implementation. Several amendments are called for. Something that cannot work, will not work. This is a tautology applicable to the Right to education (RTE) Act, which cannot meet the objectives for which it was enacted. There are several reasons for this. First, the Act does not rule out educational institutions set up for profit (Section 2.n.(iv))....

Three months after introducing reservation for SC/STs through a roster system in appointment of cooks for the mid-day meal scheme, the state government has withdrawn the order, following several incidents of boycott of these cooks by students, withdrawal of wards by parents, and even violent protests against their appointment. The official reason given by the education Department is that the roster system was only applicable to regular government jobs, while cooks...

Silently, and without much sarkari fanfare, dramatic changes are taking place in the population indicators of some states that you won't see reflected in country-level data. Crude birth rate, that is, the number of live births per 1,000 population dipped from 26.4 to 22.8 for the whole country between 1998 and 2008. That's a 14% decline. But in eight major states, the decline was much more. In Punjab, birth rate...