Poor utilization of funds and irregular disbursals have been cited as the reasons for India’s school education system failing to show desired improvement even as the government has more than doubled funds for education programmes in the past two years. The government has spent just 70% of the funds allocated for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (education for all) and Right to Education in 2010-11 compared with 78% in the year earlier, according...

-The Times of India Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh on Monday rewarded a woman who refused to live at her in-laws house because there was no toilet. The decision to reward the tribal woman, Anita Bai Narre, with Sulabh Sanitation Award, comprising a cheque of Rs 5 lakh, is aimed at encouraging sanitation and hygiene, which would boost the low-cost toilet movement. Newly-wed Anita Bai of Betul district of Madhya Pradesh hit...

-PTI About 58.8 per cent of households in Maharashtra have TV sets while 13.3 per cent have computer/laptop and 69.1 per cent have telephone/mobile in their households, as per the data on "housing, amenities and assets" in the 2011 census. The respective figures at national level are 47.2, 9.5 and 63.2 per cent, Ranjit Singh Deol, director Census operations, Maharashtra, told reporters in Mumbai. The share of households having two wheelers is 24.9...

-IANS Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Friday announced a hike of over 21 per cent in the budget allocation for providing free and compulsory education to children below 14 years.  "I proposed an increase in allocation by 21.7 per cent for RTE ( Right to Education) -Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan to Rs.25,555 crore," Mukherjee said in parliament.  The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is implemented in partnership with state governments and covers nearly 192 million children across...

Census sheds new light on changing nation Though half of all Indians do not have a toilet at home, well over half own a telephone, new census data released on Tuesday show. These and many other contrasting facts of life have come out in Census 2011. The data on housing, household amenities and assets cast new light on a country in the throes of a complex transition, where millions have access to...