For years, they have been waking up early and starting late. But India's northeast, which sees sunrise almost two hours before Mumbai, has decided it's time to set the clock right. The region's demand for a separate time zone has never been more vociferous April is usually the cruelest month for India's northeastern states. Cyclonic storms lash the region with vengeance and rip apart homes and hopes. But in all...
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81% of class V kids in TN can't read English by M Ramya
Nearly 65% of class V students in rural areas of Tamil Nadu can’t read even a class II textbook in their mother tongue, 45% don’t know subtraction and nearly 81% can’t read simple English sentences, the Annual Status of Education Report for 2009, compiled by Delhi-based NGO Pratham Foundation, has revealed. The findings of the survey, which had a sample size of 33,000 students in both private and government schools,...
More »Panchayats should play a big role in helping us tackle Maoists: Manmohan by J Balaji
Even as Maoists continue to pose a threat to the government, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday urged panchayats to play a big role in helping the Centre tackle the rebels by working more effectively and ensuring administrative transparency. Inaugurating a conference to celebrate ‘National Panchayati Raj Day' under the auspices of the Ministry of the Panchayati Raj here on Saturday, Dr. Singh said that if Panchayati Raj institutions (PRIs) functioned...
More »OBC census: SC seeks govt response
A PIL in the Supreme Court on Monday made a strong pitch for utilising the elaborate ‘Census 2011’ mechanism to end the 80 long years of speculation about the exact population of other backward classes (OBC), which had been the basis for 27% Reservation in jobs and educational institutions. PIL petitioner Kishore Govind Kanhere through counsel D K Garg said that while the Mandal Commission estimated that OBCs constituted 52%...
More »Blinkered vision by Vandana Prasad
If recent indicators are anything to go by – the failure to keep food prices down, the proposed national food security Act, the failure to ensure even minimum wages to construction workers at projects for the upcoming Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, to recount a few – it seems the country has given up even the pretence of caring about its children or their crippling, unbudging state of malnutrition. Leaders,...
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