-Live Mint Building an outcomes-focused delivery system is a particular challenge in India For once, I am optimistic about elementary education in India. Not because we have witnessed improvements in learning levels. In fact, the opposite is true. The latest Annual Status of Education Report highlights the deepening crisis of poor learning levels. In 2008, just under 50% of standard III students could read a standard I text. In 2012, this dropped...

-Live Mint Former Irda chief spells out the problems with regulating the insurance sector in an interview Regulators are sometimes not too keen on laying down the law because they may be too close to the industry that they are charged with making sure is complying with rules, said J. Hari Narayan, who stepped down on Wednesday as chairman of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda).   “There is a lot going on...

-The Times of India Jharkhand has ranked third among all states in implementation of the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) and delivery of services and monitoring. Mridula Sinha, principal secretary, state social welfare department, said the most important part of the whole process was monitoring the 40,000 anganwadi centres. Progress was reviewed during frequent visits to the centres or sometimes on telephone. "Focus was given more on weaker centres," said Sinha. The ranking...

-The Telegraph Jaipur: In this e-age, the pen can still be a potent weapon. The good old writing instrument, mightier than a sword in the hands of the right user, found a band of little champions who recently used it to telling effect. They got education authorities in Rajasthan to appoint a teacher for their school. They didn’t write emails, though laptops are being given to meritorious students to become e-savvy. They just...

-The Hindu ‘Al vida’, said Afzal Guru to his executioner, who had himself bid him good bye with the same words a few seconds earlier. And then as the executioner pulled a lever, Afzal’s frame hung from the gallows. “He was dead in a minute, though”, as per the jail norms, the body was kept hanging for a full half hour, said an official who witnessed the hanging. Thereafter Afzal’s body was...