-The Indian Express An accountability framework is critical for flagship schemes In his budget speech, the finance minister gave the assurance that all flagship programmes of the government would be adequately funded. The government pours substantial funds into 70 Centrally sponsored schemes. In 2011-12, an amount of Rs 1,88,573 crore was allocated for the implementation of 13 development programmes, such as the MGNREGA, PMGSY, NRHM and JNNURM, under the auspices of nine...

-The Hindu In a small town in Karnataka, government-school students are working to ensure that their schools meet the infrastructure norms of the RTE Act. Can this model be replicated elsewhere in the country? Kishore Mahadevaiah, a Std VII student, is describing his ideal school. “The school should be very clean and neat. In every class, there should be teaching and learning materials and sports materials and qualified teachers. And there should...

-The Indian Express Mindful of the fiscal challenge the national food security law is likely to bring, the government proposes to give itself the option of raising the price of foodgrains three years after the law is rolled out. To ensure that the UPA’s showpiece welfare legislation is not grounded because of opposition from the states, the food ministry is set to drop the provision for setting up a National Food Commission...

-Outlook Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, who today completed one year in office, claimed that his government has created 'path for permanent development' of the state and people's faith in democracy has increased. "We can claim that in the last one year we have created path for the permanent development of the state. The government has worked in every sector and taken the state forward," Akhilesh said here on the...

-The Economic Times India may have policy of preferring free and open source applications, but still the world's largest software maker Microsoft and others, including Adobe, Norton and McAfee, have managed to weasel their way into some of the largest government purchases in the country's history. Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan are in the process of procuring over eight million laptops preloaded with proprietary software in clear violation of India's national...