As dusk falls, the sound of children singing fills the air at the SOS Tibetan Children’s Village in Bylakuppe, five hours’ drive from Bangalore in southern India. Night descends on the tidy, stone-paved school campus carved out of the lush jungle. But darkness is dispelled when 20 solar-powered street lights on the campus begin to glow with a steady white light. Thirty dormitories set among groves of coconut palm trees are...

What happens in open standards? All technology/software used for e-governance becomes inter-operable. In other words, any technology platform or software should be able to read government documents, maps, images and datasheets. Who gains? Government: Will not have to spend crores on a proprietary standard. Various offices would be able to access data without having same technology/software. Consumers: Will not have to buy proprietary software to access government documents Who loses? Big proprietary software companies and licensed...

Members of various NGOs and child rights activists, working for free, compulsory and quality education for underprivileged children, on Thursday lamented the fact that formulators and writers of the Right to Education (RTE) Act had failed to include children belonging to diverse minority groups. At a state-level training for various stakeholders on the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 — also known as RTE Act — activists...

They were poor. Some of them begged and picked rags on the streets of Bangalore, and some others worked as domestic helps. But their fate changed when the Association for Promoting Social Action (APSA), a Bangalore-based grass-root community development organisation, took notice of their plight and built a school and accommodation facilities for them. However, not all street children are lucky enough to be rescued from the pavements, and many of...

  They were poor. Some of them begged and picked rags on the streets of Bangalore, and some others worked as domestic helps. But their fate changed when the Association for Promoting Social Action (APSA), a Bangalore-based grass-root community development organisation, took notice of their plight and built a school and accommodation facilities for them. However, not all street children are lucky enough to be rescued from the pavements, and many of...