-Hindustan Times New Delhi: The CBSE wants to ensure that teachers in private schools are not saddled with non-teaching work, a common complaint across the country, and will in coming days ask these institutes for staff details. The Central Board of SECondary Education, the country’s biggest school board, would issue a circular to all the around 16,000 private schools affiliated it to it to give information about the work assigned to the...

-The Hindu The overcrowding of prisons in the country is a long-standing problem that is seldom addressed effectively. Even though the Supreme Court has, from time to time, raised the issue of prison reforms in general, and that of overcrowding in particular, measures to decongest jails have been sporadic and half-hearted. The issue is once again in the news, with the Supreme Court bemoaning that prisons in Delhi and nine States...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Those selling bottled water and cold drinks at more than their maximum retail price, including at airports, restaurants and multiplexes, could attract penalty and jail terms, consumer affairs minister Ram Vilas Paswan said on Friday. Citing the common experience of consumers, the minister said packaged drinking water is often found selling at 10-20% higher rates at such locations and there are also cases where some of...

-The Hindu With clean energy access a high priority for India, we must look beyond kerosene, ensuring alternatives After the success of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)/cooking gas, the government has now decided to launch DBT for kerosene (DBTK), starting with pilots in the State of Jharkhand. While the move is well-intentioned, it may not be simple to implement at scale, and may even fail to eliminate the...

-Livemint.com The transformation of the Indian countryside has been slow and messy One of the celebrated success stories of India’s growth experience over the past decade was the rapid transformation of the countryside, with a massive shift in the rural labour market away from farm jobs. Two labour economists have now challenged the empirical foundations of that success story, raising deep questions on the nature and scale of that transformation. Their research also...