-The Business Standard Kolkata: Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee, Ford Foundation International professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has slammed the government's Right To Education (RTE) programme. This, he said, was only a step towards ensuring a means of livelihood for teachers. Banerjee said the programme, implemented in 2009, lacked sense. He said he wasn't hopeful about the outcome of the initiative. "It is simply for the teachers, by the teachers,...

-PTI A Delhi High Court-appointed panel has recommended that 58 unaided private schools in the national capital refund "unjustly" hiked fees to parents. "The committee has recommended refund of fee unjustly hiked by 58 schools. Among them are 11 schools, where the committee, besides recommending the refund, has also recommended special inspection to be carried out by the Directorate of Education (DoE)," the three-member panel headed by former Rajasthan High Court Chief...

-Deccan Herald Private institutions to deliberate on fee structure Bangalore: The High Court of Karnataka on Tuesday rescheduled the seminar on implementation of Right to Education (RTE) Act. The Court had earlier directed the State government to conduct a seminar on March 10 on enforcing Right to Education as a fundamental right. The seminar will now be held on April 10. The order came during the hearing of an impleading application filed by Federation...

-New Indian Express Bangalore: The Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights will organise a round table conference  to solicit suggestions and feedback from various stakeholders for effective implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act on March 9. The conference will be held in accordance with the High Court directions. The court asked the State government in January to hold a seminar to clear the air over the confusion shrouding...

-The Guardian In a village in India's poorest state, Bihar, farmers are growing world record amounts of rice – with no GM, and no herbicide. Is this one solution to world food shortages? Sumant Kumar was overjoyed when he harvested his rice last year. There had been good rains in his village of Darveshpura in north-east India and he knew he could improve on the four or five tonnes per hectare that he usually...