-The Times of India The government on Thursday launched an anti-ragging website helping students of universities, colleges and professional institutes lodge online complaints against ragging or harassment and seek faster response. The portal (www.antiragging.in) launched by HRD minister Kapil Sibal is also expected to maintain a database of students and will be connected to most universities by year-end. Sibal said, "Lot of young students have lost their lives, many loose their confidence...

-The Times of India BOLPUR/NEW DELHI: The Prime Minister's office on Monday took serious note of an incident where a Class-V student of Visva-Bharati's Patha Bhavan school was forced to lick her urine as punishment for bedwetting. The PM is the university's chancellor and his office has asked for a report. The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights too has slapped a notice on the state government asking for a...

-The Times of India More than 17 lakh lawyers will strike work on Wednesday and Thursday, paralyzing judicial work across the country to protest against the Higher Education and Research Bill piloted by the HRD ministry, alleging that it would take away important academic regulatory powers from the Bar Council of India (BCI).  After exhausting its representations opposing the HER Bill, the regulatory body BCI on Monday said it had no option...

-The Indian Express If only committees moved this fast on issues other than censorship The six-member committee appointed by HRD Minister Kapil Sibal to examine the content of NCERT textbooks for “educationally inappropriate material” may have failed in its very purpose by delivering its report in just 45 days. After all, the institution of the committee was created as a procrastinatory tool to give governments some breathing room. Mostly, a committee is...

While the panel to examine the content of NCERT senior secondary textbooks has recommended removal of 21 cartoons, one of the members has filed a note of dissent. Disagreeing with the rest of the six-member committee, Prof M S S Pandian from the Madras Institute of Development Studies has, in a separate report, emphasised that cartoons are a part of the learning process. He has also praised the NCERT textbooks for...