-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...

-PTI   Rahul Gandhi on Thursday termed as "wrong" the police firing on agitating farmers in Mawal in Pune district as he visited the families of those killed in the incident and joined a prayer meeting. Making an unscheduled visit to a cluster of villages in the area, the AICC general secretary met the families of the victims - Shyamrao Tope at Sadawali village, Moreshwar Sathe at Shivrane village and the family of...

-PTI   Farmers affected by the Yamuna Expressway project have threatened to resume their agitation if the Uttar Pradesh government fails to respond to their demands by September 5. In a memorandum sent to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, the Kisan Sangharsh Samiti, which has been leading the agitation for more than two years now, has demanded that there should be a parity in compensation rates for all districts through which the expressway...

-The Times of India   Protests swelled across the nation on Wednesday in support of Gandhian Anna Hazare's fast-unto-death in Tihar Jail. The 74-year-old Anna fasted on Wednesday as thousands of his followers gathered outside the jail, the latest development in a crisis that saw him arrested on Tuesday and then refuse to leave jail after the government ordered his release. Thousands of Anna supporters on Wednesday also took out a march from India...

-The Indian Express   Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan today said suspended work of the contentious closed water pipeline project at Maval, which led to a violent protest recently, would not be recommenced till the "misgivings" of the affected farmers were removed. "Nothing will be done by keeping people in the dark. This applies to all projects including Jaitapur (nuclear power plant)," he told reporters after visiting the injured agitators in a hospital...