-Economic and Political Weekly There are bASIc methodological and conceptual problems with recent research that ends up arguing that private school education is more effective than public education. Such findings have obvious policy implications but it is critical that research that informs policy is based on a correct reading of facts, keeping the larger vision of education in mind. Recent research into the cost effectiveness of public education vis-à-vis private education concludes...

-Hindustan Times The Narendra Modi government on Thursday called the debate on abolishing capital punishment “legitimate” but made it clear there was no way India could afford to take the leap now due to terrorism in India and the country’s disturbed neighbourhood. Finance minister Arun Jaitley also rejected suggestions that the government had been in a hurry to execute 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts convict Yakub Memon and made it clear that...

-Tehelka The Ramon Magsaysay Award for 2015 has been announcedwith two Indians among the five, The Indians chosen are former Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) at AIIMS Sanjiv Chaturvedi and Anshu Gupta, founder of the NGO Goonj Former Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) at AIIMS Sanjiv Chaturvedi and Anshu Gupta, founder of the NGO Goonj are among the people who have been chosen for the Ramon Magsaysay Award for 2015.  Ironically , Chaturvedi was...

-Hindustan Times A nutrition plan within the National Food Security Act meant for pregnant women and lactating mothers, a vulnerable group that skews India’s hunger indices, looks quietly buried. It still runs as a trial in 52 districts, two years after the landmark legislation was signed into law. The Centre hasn’t yet begun budgeting for it to expand the maternal health scheme to cover the whole country. While a parallel scheme under...

-Hindustan Times While searching for updates on the United Nations Third International Conference on Financing for Development, which took place in Addis Ababa recently, I came across an interesting piece of news: Music maestro AR Rahman and Bollywood superstar Hrithik Roshan would join a seven-day global campaign to popularise the sustainable development goals (SDGs), which are a new set of universal goals, targets and indicators that 193 UN member states will...