-The Hindu On Monday, the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, completes three years of its existence - the time frame within which authorities were to ensure that its provisions were fully implemented - to make basic education a legal entitlement to all children aged 6-14. However, official statistics and reports from the field paint a far-from satisfactory picture, with citizens moving court against the competent authority...

-The Telegraph Ranchi: Jharkhand today logged on to a national grievance redressal system that gives voice to the citizen unable to shake up a lethargic bureaucracy, empowering him with the tools to ensure he is heard by none other than the governor or chief minister. From his office in Raj Bhavan, Governor Syed Ahmed launched "jharkhandsamadhan.nic.in", a new portal developed by National Informatics Centre (NIC) under the Centralised Public Grievance Redressal and...

-The Indian Express Patna: RTI activists in Bihar say they are intimidated and threatened by the people they seek to expose, with five of them murdered since 2009. They have mounted pressure on the government to ensure their safety. Ram Kumar Thakur of Ratnauli, an RTI activist, a lawyer and the main witness in a vigilance case, was shot dead last week, the latest of the five murders. The FIR names Ratnauli...

-The Times of India MUMBAI: Indian villages are powering their own economy, but contrary to conventional belief , it's not government largesses which are the drivers, but their own self-sustaining models. Growth at the bottom of the pyramid is at unprecedented level, and the transformation is stark. The factors driving this transformation are dramatic improvements in rural roads, electrification, cell phones and water supply which are raising wages and increasing job opportunities...

-The Indian Express   Lucknow: The Akhilesh Yadav government today launched the Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Gramin Awas Yojna by distributing cheques of the first instalment of financial assistance promised to the rural poor for constructing pucca houses under the scheme. According to the scheme, the state government will provide Rs 1 lakh to rural poor who do not own a pucca house. The state government will give an additional Rs 15,000...