-IANS India's ambitious national solar programme has catalysed rapid growth in the solar market driving solar energy prices low and demonstrating how government policy can stimulate clean energy markets, according to a new report. In only two years, competitive bidding under India's National Solar MISsion drove prices for grid-connected solar energy to nearly the price of electricity from fossil fuels, said the report released here Wednesday by the Natural Resources Defence...

The CBI registered over 2,000 corruption cases against public servants in the past three years but has been able to file chargesheets in only 16 cases. A senior CBI official blamed two factors: staff shortage and government departments’ stalling tactics on sanctioning prosecution or investigation. The complicated nature of the cases taken up by the CBI means the agency often has to scrutinise volumes of documents and examine hundreds of witnesses, he...

The Supreme Court in its verdict on the constitutionality of the Right to Education Act in relation to the reservation of seats for Economically Weaker Section [EWS] and socially disadvantaged [SD] children has rightly upheld the principle of integration. It is hard to see how it could have been any other way. In fact, the arguments against segregation and in favour of diversity in schools have long been settled in...

LUCKNOW: In a significant order passed by the Central Information ComMISsion, inspection reports of banks can be disclosed under the RTIAct. And, the Reserve Bank of India cannot deny disclosing the report stating that it can have ill-effects on the economy. The CIC's order came in a case pertaining to Kanpur-based United Mercantile Cooperative Bank Ltd. in its order, the CIC stated that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) should disclose...

-Express News Service Ahmedabad: Flouting rules under Right to Education (RTE) Act, private schools in the city are still following the practice of conducting interviews of children as well as their parents during adMISsions to entry-level classes. While the majority of private schools have already completed their adMISsions for the entry-level classes (nursery to kindergarten), a few are still accepting the forms. Though the schools did not admit they were conducted interviews, they...