-The Times of India PUNE: The much-anticipated extension of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, to the pre-school and secondary education may still take time to come through. The act, which at present covers primary and upper primary schools, provides for free and compulsory education to children between the ages of six and 14 and directs government, aided and non-minority unaided schools to reserve 25% of...

-The Economic Times The trend in Plan spending so far is disheartening. Actual expenditure during the first five months of the current fiscal year amounted to about 28% of the budgeted spending of Rs 5,21,025 crore for this fiscal - the lowest proportion recorded over the last five years. Ministries and departments are said to be willing to surrender unspent money, rather than take decisions that they fear could be questioned by...

Environmentalists, civil society groups and scientists working with marginal farmers have welcomed recommendation of the Supreme Court appointed Technical Expert Committee (TEC) placing a 10-year moratorium on field trials of GM crops in India. The TEC freeze advice includes field trials of Bt transgenics in all food crops which are used directly for human consumption. (See links below for the actual report and more details) The TEC, which was appointed in...

-The Hindustan Times Government officials riding high on hopes that privacy concerns could blunt the right to information are in for disappointment. An expert panel set up to build a framework for a privacy regulation in India has brushed aside suggestions that the information law was trampling upon privacy of public servants or individuals in public life. The Justice (retd) Ajit Prakash Shah panel has told the government that privacy was only...

-The Times of India ROHTAK: The notorious khap panchayats of Haryana on Sunday demanded a legal ban on same-gotra and same-village marriages, saying such a measure could solve the problem of rising crime against women. Leaders of 30 khap panchayats who met in Rohtak passed a resolution calling for an amendment in the Hindu Marriage Act to bring the ban on such marriages into effect. The leaders vowed to take up this demand...