-The Telegraph   Prakash Karat today said the spate of farmer suicides was the fallout of the “collapse’’ of the Mamata Banerjee government’s crop-procurement system and that it was “unfortunate’’ that cultivators were “suffering” within eight months of Trinamul coming to power. “The central committee expressed serious concern at the growing number of farmer suicides in Bengal. There are reports that 24 farmers have taken their lives. This reflects not only on the...

Pratham's seventh Annual Survey of Education Report (ASER) of rural India released on Monday tells a similar tale: rising enrolment but declining attendance, over-reliance on private tuitions, decline in reading and mathematical ability of children in the age group between six and 14. The report was released by HRD minister Kapil Sibal. Use of computer is also on the rise in upper primary schools. Almost a third (30.8%) of upper primary...

Third report in three months to highlight lack of quality education in India; poses risk to knowledge hub hopes Nearly two years after the Right to Education (RTE) Act was introduced with the promise of providing free and compulsory education to all primary school children, the learning outcome in the country has actually deteriorated in terms of quality. In yet another wake-up call for policymakers, the 2011 Annual Status of Education Report...

-Live Mint Private school enrolment in the 6-14 age group has gone up to 25.6% in 2011 from 18.7% in 2006 If one wants to understand the dismal state of school education in India, there is no better place to look than the pages of the Annual Status of Education Report 2011 (ASER). Forget the detailed statistics, just look at the maps displaying basic school education facts. They reinforce only one fact:...

Calling for urgent measures to provide sanitation facility across the country, Union Minister of Rural Development Jairam Ramesh has pointed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that in addition to malnutrition another distressing national shame which India can't live with is open defecation. Mr. Ramesh, who also controls the Department of Drinking Water Supply which implements sanitation programme, has written a letter to the Prime Minister urging him to change the government's...