-Frontline The government’s passage of the Aadhaar Bill in complete disregard of even basic parliamentary procedures and in subversion of an ongoing judicial process puts at risk a number of constitutional rights and liberties of citizens. The benefits cited are just ploys to realise a neoliberal dream. “Congressmen are dancing as if [Aadhaar] was a herb for all cures. With the Supreme Court pulling up the Centre, people are now seeking...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The notion that girls are not good with numbers and science is just a myth, if data from a nationwide survey of more than 2.7 lakh students is any indicator. The survey conducted on Class X student showed girls performed on an equal footing with boys in mathematics, science and social sciences. The study, however, upheld another common conception — that girls have better language skills....

-The Indian Express Budget 2016 has a greater focus on the rural and social sectors. But the challenge will lie in improving delivery systems. Indian agriculture as well as the rural sector have been in distress in the last two years due to deficit rainfall and the decline in global commodity prices. The rural non-agriculture sector, too, has been under stress due to the lack of demand for manufacturing and services. It...

-Frontline Higher education has been growing from strength to strength in recent years, with State public and private universities dominating the scene. CENTRAL universities are suddenly in the eye of a storm in the country. First it was the University of Hyderabad, where the suicide of Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula led to nationwide student protests and drew universal condemnation of the authorities, and now the nation is gripped by the...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Budget cuts in several schemes for minority, Dalit and tribal students have prompted academics and activists to question the government's commitment to the education of marginalised communities. A section of the budget papers presented on Monday, titled "Expenditure Budget, Statement 22", shows a fall in allocations to many schemes compared with last year's budget. For example, allocations for pre-matric scholarships for minorities and Dalits have fallen by over 10...