-The Economic Times The government is likely to shoot down the department of financial services’ (DFS) plan to appoint common banking correspondent companies for transferring cash to poor people, and replace it with a countrywide network of ‘micro ATMs’, as it seeks to finalise the last-mile payment architecture for cash transfers.   In a meeting on Monday evening, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, UIDAI Chairman Nandan Nilekani, and Planning Commission officials met Finance...

-Press Information Bureau The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 has brought in several reform processes. States/UTs have inter-alia brought out notifications prohibiting corporal punishment, detention and board examinations in elementary education. The National Council for teachers’ Education (NCTE) has laid down teacher qualifications and 22 States/UTs have conducted teacher Eligibility Tests to improve the quality of teaching. In order to ensure free and compulsory education for...

-The Telegraph Srinagar: If appetite for capital punishment has been whetted in the country, Padshah Begum’s experience today should serve as a timely note of caution. The 60-year-old lady in Srinagar received word this afternoon that Delhi High Court has taken her son off death row because “serious lapses” marked the police investigation into a blast in the capital in 1996. She is no stranger to such news: two years ago, her eldest...

-NDTV After an NDTV story which showed a Class 6 textbook that says meat-eaters cheat, lie and commit sex crimes, the Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE) has said that school books used across the country are not monitored for content. "We only recommend books for Class IX onwards. Books are chosen by individual schools. There is no monitoring of content of school books," CBSE chief Vineet Joshi told NDTV today. He was...

-Deccan Herald A 15-year-old girl from Siwan, Bihar, was admitted in critical condition to the burns unit of Safdarjung hospital, after a classmate threw acid on her leading to complete blindness in one eye, burnt face, and breathing, speaking and hearing impairment. The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has asked the Bihar government to release immediate financial assistance for the child’s treatment.  Tuba Tabassum, a class-X student, left for tuition...