-Hindustan Times School textbooks in recent decades have frequently become battlegrounds for ideological contestation in India. Most textbook wars are to advance majoritarian perspectives on history and culture. However, a recent very different textbook skirmish broke out about the public and private sectors in healthcare. The story of this ideological clash is bemusing and instructive, illuminating competing perspectives on the nature of education, healthcare and markets in new India. This clash surfaced...

-Hindustan Times Delhi education minister Manish Sisodia on Friday tabled two bills in the Assembly, which he said would revolutionise education reform sand go along way in helping the common man.   The Delhi School (Verification of Accounts and Refund of Excess Fee) Bill 2015, better known as the Fee Regulation Bill, was the first to be presented. “People say that fee of a private school nowadays is more than their salaries, making private...

-Hindustan Times New Delhi: Eight-year-old Pihu Tiwari runs a marathon every morning with nearly 12 kilos loaded on her back. At least that’s what her walk from the school gate to her second-floor classroom feels like. She doesn’t just get tired but often pants her way up the staircase. “She is thin and weighs 29kg. And every day, she has to carry a bag to school which is almost half her weight. My...

-Hindustan Times Heavy rains and deadly flooding in south India, a region that saw a killer heat wave this summer, are weather patterns that appear to fit the scenarios of climate change in India, IMD chief Laxman Singh Rathore has said. “They (emerging weather patterns) fit the larger picture of climate change predicted by Indian scientists as well as global reports,” Rathore told HT. Episodes of excessive rainfall are increasing while the...

-Hindustan Times This year is turning out to be a milestone year for the world’s future: In September, 192 countries signed the Sustainable Development Goals and on November 30, delegates from 195 countries will converge in Paris for 12 days to hammer out a new global climate accord. There are several cross-cutting issues between the two mega meets, climate change and agriculture being the two big ones. It is a no-brainer why...