School education laws in the state will soon undergo an overhaul. The Maharashtra government has set up a committee to synchronise all laws in school education with the centralRight to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 .  Formed recently by the state's school education department, it will be led by a retired Bombay high court judge and will have experts in education.  While the committee will look at all laws in...

The government has asked banks to accept identity proofs issued in other states as valid documents for opening no-frills bank accounts, in a move that will help millions of migrant workers, including domestic helps and drivers, access banking services.  At a specially convened meeting to push the financial inclusion agenda, the finance ministry asked bankers to accept the identity proofs and use their branch network in other states to verify the...

Water, the most vital of all resources, has emerged as a key issue that would determine if Asia is headed toward cooperation or competition. After all, the driest continent in the world is not Africa but Asia, where availability of freshwater is not even half the global annual average of 6,380 cubic metres per inhabitant. When the estimated reserves of rivers, lakes, and aquifers are added up, Asia has less than...

Roadblocks Ahead     * The MIDC has been winding up its plans to set up SEZs     * As many as 28 SEZ proposals, in the government and private sector, were withdrawn or projects denotified in the last six months     * Farmer protests, land acquisition problems, economic downturn and non-feasible tax regimes are cited as reasons for developers backing out. CM Prithviraj Chavan too exercises great caution. *** Mandated to create industrial opportunities in...

THE Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to accept NREGS job cards or Aadhar letter as official documents for opening accounts in rural cooperative banks for persons covered under the scheme. This will enable the job card holders or the workers to keep their money is safe custody. An RBI communique to the state and district cooperative banks has said that the accounts can be opened with certain conditions attached as...