-The Hindu The Right to Education (RTE) Act turned three on March 31, 2013. It is certainly a short period to examine its efficacy, yet it is enough to give us a fair idea of the hurdles that are being faced and have to be tackled to get positive results. Most of these hurdles are attitudinal. The services of retired teachers are mostly sought for imparting "special training" to out-of-school children...

-Live Mint Almost two decades after the Panchayati Raj Act was notified, a key aim of the legislation remains unfulfilled Papapatti/Madurai district: S. Muruganadam, 38, is the Dalit president of the Papapatti village panchayat in Madurai district and a post-graduate in political science. His term ends in 2016 and he has made up his mind not to run for re-election. "I think a panchayat president's post is an important post because only...

-Live Mint Almost two decades after the Panchayati Raj Act was notified, a key aim of the legislation remains unfulfilled Papapatti/Madurai district: S. Muruganadam, 38, is the Dalit president of the Papapatti village panchayat in Madurai district and a post-graduate in political science. His term ends in 2016 and he has made up his mind not to run for re-election. "I think a panchayat president's post is an important post because only he...

KEY TRENDS   • According to National Sample Survey report no. 583: Persons with Disabilities in India, the percentage of persons with disability who received aid/help from Government was 21.8 percent, 1.8 percent received aid/help from organisation other than Government and another 76.4 percent did not receive aid/ help *8   • As per National Family Health Survey-4 (NFHS-4), the Under-five Mortality Rate (U5MR) was 57.2 per 1,000 live births (for the non-STs it was 38.5)...

-The Hindu Chennai: Private non-minority unaided schools in the city will, hereafter, have to follow a streamlined admission procedure for intake of students under the 25 per cent quota mandated by the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009. A government order (G.O.) issued by the school education department on Monday prescribes not just a common schedule for issue of application forms and declaration of admission results, but also...