While gender equality ratios have improved in 85 percent of countries over the past six years, economic participation and political empowerment for women has failed to match the steady progress of health and education, says a new report by the World Economic Forum. The report, "Global Gender Gap", compiled by Ricardo Hausmann from Harvard University, Laura Tyson from University of California, Berkeley and Saadia Zahidi from the World Economic Forum, illustrates...

The state is not serious about the need for a robust programme of elementary teacher education to realise the right to education. IN India today it is difficult to decide how the agenda for teacher education and its reform can be taken forward. The Right to Education will succeed only if teachers are able to work to ensure that all children do become educated by attending school; effectively, this means...

The fourth edition of the World Economic Forum’s (WEF’s) Gender Gap Report, released on October 27, makes for somewhat depressing reading if you are Indian. The country has slipped four places in 2009 to rank 114 out of 134 countries. If there is slight consolation, it is that our biggest global economic competitor, China, fared slightly better, slipping two places over its 2008 ranking. Beyond that, comparisons appear meaningless. At...