-The Hindu   In his Independence Day address, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made two important announcements, both relating to education. One affirmed the government's intention to improve the quality of education at various levels and appoint an Education Commission to go into the issues. The other outlined a plan to universalise secondary education as a follow-up to the enactment of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE), 2009...

The National Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI) said on Saturday that while it fully backed anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare and his team on their right to agitate for a Jan Lokpal Bill, it had strong reservations over the methods adopted by the group and disagreed with the provisions of their Bill. The NCPRI objected in particular to the ultimatums flowing from Ramlila Maidan — where Mr. Hazare is fasting...

The first thing that comes to our mind is — and this has nothing to do with this particular case — that even in 2003, when this misconduct was continuing, how come such persons get to be appointed? It really seriously means that we have to revisit that process. Originally, when the Constitution was framed, we had a system where judges were appointed by the executive in consultation with the...

-The Telegraph   Calcutta High Court today asked the state government to clarify whether returning of the Singur land to “unwilling” farmers could be considered a “public service”. Justice I.P. Mukerji told state advocate-general Anindya Mitra that Tata Motors counsel Samaraditya Pal had claimed that land could not be taken back from his client unless it was for a public service. “Since the main purpose of enacting the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act,...

-The Hindu   It does not mention quantum of compensation or time of payment, says judge The Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act, 2011, came under the scrutiny of the Calcutta High Court on Friday, with Justice I.P. Mukerji saying it did not mention the quantum of compensation and the time of payment. The Tata Motors had argued that the Act was unclear on compensation. Clarification sought Seeking clarifications from Advocate-General Anindya Mitra on issues relating...