-The Pioneer Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Saturday said the government is proposing a new National Urban Health Mission to focus on the health challenges of people in towns and cities while it would continue the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) for another five years. Delivering his address at the third convocation of the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) here, Singh said: "Our government has decided to continue the...

A school principal in Melur in Madurai district, Tamil Nadu, is reported to have denied admission to two girls whose parents had married them off after they completed Class X ( The Hindu , June 23). Prima facie , it seems the principal is wrongly applying her authority. Also, in the broader social context, it seems strange and unacceptable that the benefits of education should be denied to a girl...

While the panel to examine the content of NCERT senior secondary textbooks has recommended removal of 21 cartoons, one of the members has filed a note of dissent. Disagreeing with the rest of the six-member committee, Prof M S S Pandian from the Madras Institute of Development Studies has, in a separate report, emphasised that cartoons are a part of the Learning process. He has also praised the NCERT textbooks for...

-The Telegraph A committee set up to go through cartoons used in NCERT textbooks in the wake of a controversy over one involving B.R. Ambedkar is learnt to have supported their use as Learning tools but asked for guidelines to choose the right ones. The six-member panel headed by Sukhadeo Thorat, chairperson of the Indian Council of Social Science Research, yesterday submitted its report to Parvin Sinclair, director of the NCERT. A member...

Ranchi: Supreme Court today dismissed a petition filed by local tribals against setting up three national institutes of higher Learning on the outskirts of Ranchi, arming a hitherto defensive district administration to deal with the ongoing protests firmly. According to lawyer Rajeev Gupta, representing petitioners Mangu Oraon and others, an apex court division bench comprising Justice H.L. Gokhale and Justice Ranjana Desai observed that “it’s a 50-year old case” which the...