Can more knowledge about our society, about the individuals and groups who constitute it, be a bad thing? I’ve been wondering about this lately, in the context of two government initiatives to gather more knowledge about us Indians, as caste groups and as individuals. Both of these information-gathering exercises—the proposal for a “caste census”, which has generated a stormy argument, and the merely desultory discussion over the planned Unique Identification...

As the nation observes World Day Against Child Labour Saturday, NGO Child Rights and You (CRY) Friday said that unless agriculture is brought under the ambit of the child labour law, eradicating child labour as a whole will be a futile attempt. 'Agriculture accounts for as many as nearly 70 percent of India's 17 million child labourers, but is not included in the list of 16 occupations and 65 processes...

Why is Madhya Pradesh ranked so low in the Millennium Development Goals like child and maternal mortality, extreme poverty, hunger and safe drinking water? Social sector allocation has increased only during the last few years. Before 2005, there wasn’t enough money allocated to it when compared to poverty alleviation schemes. Also, it takes time for the benefits of the allocations to reach people and for real change to manifest itself....

Universities to provide infrastructure Courses will meet needs of specific communities CHENNAI: At least ten community colleges will be started by each university to provide vocational training to unskilled workers by September 1, a meeting chaired by Higher education Minister K. Ponmudy decided on Wednesday. A. Ramasamy, Vice-Chairman, Tamil Nadu State Council for Higher education (TANSCHE), said universities would provide infrastructure and faculty support, while the Directorate of Technical education would provide the...

The Right to education, in effect since April 1, is set to cost the Centre a staggering 2,31,000 crore over the next five years according to fresh estimates. Previous estimates drawn up by National University of education Planning & Administration (NUEPA) — the basis of financial planning for the RTE’s provisions so far — had pegged the requirement at Rs 1,71,000 crore. In a note submitted to the Expenditure Finance...