A recent report of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) brings forth the dichotomy between digital divide and India’s transition towards a cashless economy. The rural-urban divide in access to computer and internet is quite stark, according to the report entitled 'Key Indicators of Household Social Consumption on Education in India, July 2017 to June 2018'.   The 75th round National Sample Survey (NSS) report on education finds that...

-The Indian Express As per the data provided by the Ministry of Human Resource and Development, IIT Madras tops the list with suicides by seven students during this period. Twenty seven students across 10 Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in the country have committed suicide in the last five years, reply to a Right to Information (RTI) query has revealed. As per the data provided by the Department of Higher Education working...

-Press release by National Alliance of Peoples' Movements  dated 28 November, 2019 In yet another of its egregious legislative misadventures, the BJP Government with support from some other parties, passed the regressive 'Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights)' Bill, in the Rajya Sabha yesterday, despite wide-spread opposition by members of the transgender, intersex and gender non-confirming communities, seeking referral of the Bill to a Select Committee. We have all been witness to...

-The Hindu Education is a right, not a privilege reserved for the select elite Even though Jawaharlal Nehru University, where I teach, is in turmoil because of an incompetent administration incapable of communicating with the students and teachers, the larger crisis confronting the idea of a public university needs to be understood. From Jamia Millia Islamia to Jadavpur University, from Visva-Bharati University to Aligarh Muslim University, and from the University of Hyderabad...

-The Indian Express This is according to data obtained from the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS), which oversees all KVs in the country, by The Indian Express under the Right to Information Act (RTI). Admissions to Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs) across the country under the discretionary quota of the Minister of Human Resource Development (HRD) in 2018-19 have surged more than 20-fold compared to 2014. And admissions to KVs under the Minister’s discretionary...