-The Hindu   In his Independence Day address, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made two important announcements, both relating to education. One affirmed the government's intention to improve the quality of education at various levels and appoint an Education Commission to go into the issues. The other outlined a plan to universalise secondary education as a follow-up to the enactment of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE), 2009...

Land is the most important ingredient for the development of real estate and infrastructure. For quite some time now, land acquisition had become a contentious issue in the country, which has threatened not only the industrial development but also planned growth of cities in the country. In this backdrop, the central government's decision to introduce a land acquisition bill in the monsoon session of Parliament will go a long way...

PM's announcement in I-Day address went unnoticed in public focus on corruption Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's announcement on Monday on setting up a commission “to make suggestions for improvements at all levels of education” has largely gone unnoticed amid the public focus on corruption. Even though his Independence Day address did not elaborate on its mandate, sources in the government indicated, the recommendations of the proposed commission should add up to...

• Without a clear definition of ‘public purpose’, the land acquisition bill is meaningless • The bill’s definition of ‘fertile land’ can potentially harm the agriculture sector • Government’s role in defining land will create economic and political problems in future As Parliament debates this month it will, hopefully, move beyond issues of corruption in high places to important economic legislation. Two such pieces of legislation are the land acquisition bill and...

The Delhi High Court today appointed an adhoc regulatory committee to examine the 2009 notification of the Delhi government which allowed schools to hike tuition and development fees. The court in its judgment on a bunch of petitions filed by various parents associations, including the Delhi Abhibhavak Mahasangh, also suggested to the Delhi government to constitute an expert committee which can go into the feasibility of establishing a regulatory body for...