An unnecessary controversy has been started by the release of the poverty estimates of 2009-10 by the planning comMISsion. The controversy, which was entirely avoidable, was allowed to go on because of the poor handling of the issue by the planning comMISsion. It is unfortunate that the planning comMISsion was less than willing to own the Tendulkar committee report which was submitted in December 2009 and accepted by the comMISsion...

Health ministry instead plans to roll out an integrated national health survey; experts question decision   The Union government has decided to discontinue the country’s most reliable and widely tracked health survey, the National Family Health Survey (NFHS), the fourth round of which was to be conducted in 2012-13, in a move that has been criticized by development experts. The ministry of health and family welfare is instead planning to roll out an...

-PTI Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa has expressed her "vehement objection" to the National ComMISsion for Human Resource for Health (NCHRH) Bill, 2011, saying it "undermines" the powers of the state governments.  The Bill, now referred to the Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare by the Rajya Sabha, effectively puts the leadership and decision making process with regard to medical, dental and paramedical education in the "hands of about 25...

Former law minister and anti-Emergency crusader Shanti Bhushan on Tuesday pleaded with a Supreme Court's five-judge constitution bench not to go ahead with the framing of reporting guidelines and said fetters on press freedom would impede democracy.  Bhushan cited the infamous ADM Jabalpur case judgement rendered by a constitution bench of the Supreme Court, which had by 4:1 majority upheld suspension of right to life during the Emergency, and said it...

-The Pioneer Almost 95.2 per cent of schools are not compliant with the complete set of Right to Education (RTE) infrastructure indicators. These shocking statistics came to light in the two-day RTE Stocktaking Convention which was recently held. The Convention aimed to address the pending gaps and detect the reasons behind the schools MISsing out on the deadline to meet the basic standard of education as highlighted by the RTE. The RTE...