India’s government is preparing to conduct the country’s first comprehensive survey on higher education, according to a senior education official. While there are reliable statistics about primary and secondary schools, currently available numbers for higher education are severely inadequate, said Sunil Kumar, additional secretary for higher education at the Ministry of Human Resource Development. Addressing a conference organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry late last month, he said the survey would map...

There has been a gross simplification of the issues involved in the exposures in the Radia tapes on the lack of integrity among mediapersons. In order to understand how exactly journalists really function it is necessary to understand the overall context in which they operate and clarify some of the persistent myths about what the profession is all about. Four myths in particular need to be dissected: That it enjoins...

If dal roti went out of reach for the aam admi in 2009, vegetables and onion prices brought tears towards the end of 2010 and with food inflation touching a high of 14.44 per cent for the week ending December 18, the New Year did not ring in any respite from high food prices. The sudden increase of Rs.3 per litre in the price of petrol in December — the sixth...

The world's growing riches seem to make little difference to over 100 million people globally as they slide into poverty every year because of healthcare costs. One of the unsolved conundrums in many countries is the inability to provide for universal healthcare coverage, despite economic growth and development. While the financial consequences of illness are severe for many in poorer countries that do not have appropriate systems in place, those...

A. Mobi Singh, editor of the Sanaleibak newspaper, has been arrested by police commandos posing as representatives of a banned organisation. The All-Manipur Working Journalists' Union said in a statement that Mr. Singh received a call from someone claiming to be a member of the banned armed group, the Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP), on December 28. He wanted to set up a meeting with three members of the union, of which...