At a time when parents are miffed by the “dictatorial” attitude of school managements, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is all set to give more teeth to parents’ associations. The latest move is the brainchild of CBSE chairperson Vineet Joshi, aimed at involving parents in core issues of the schools’ administration including controversial fee hike and admission procedures. The board has recently asked all its affiliated-schools to strengthen its parents’...

Every fifth person who killed himself in Maharashtra in 2009 was a farmer, recent suicide data says, nailing the state for most farm suicides for the tenth year in a row. Nationwide, 17,368 farmers killed themselves in 2009, 7% more than the count in 2008. The data is part of National Crime Records Bureau`s annual report of deaths and suicides across the country. Overall, India reported 418 accidental deaths a day...

It's an irony of sorts. Mannina Maga (son of the soil) and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda's home district Hassan has emerged as the capital of farmers' suicides in Karnataka. Government statistics show that nearly 2,597 killed themselves between 2003 and 2010, making it the worst period for farmer suicides in the state. Among 30 districts from where suicides were reported, nearly 268 suicides were reported in Hassan...

Microcredit is losing its halo in many developing countries. Microcredit was once extolled by world leaders like Bill Clinton and Tony Blair as a powerful tool that could help eliminate poverty, through loans as small as $50 to cowherds, basket weavers and other poor people for starting or expanding businesses. But now microloans have prompted political hostility in Bangladesh, India, Nicaragua and other developing countries. In December, the prime minister of...

The problem of plastic waste in the city is getting acute by the day. Bangalore generates roughly 5,000 tonne of solid waste daily, of which nearly 50 tonne is plastic. But there is a ray of hope as an M Tech student has taken it upon himself to find ways of countering the menace. A N Ashwin, a student of R V Engineering College, is conducting a study, titled 'Effects of...