-The Business Standard No movement yet on quality control in higher education The state of professional higher education in India is abysmal. Consider engineering. All told, there are 1.5 million engineering seats in the country. Almost a third of these are unfilled, so about a million engineers are produced every year. Yet, barely 10 per cent of them are readily employable. About a quarter don’t know enough English to make sense...

-The Times of India The government is likely to incorporate significant amendments to the whistleblowers protection Bill that will keep matters pertaining to national security, public order, Cabinet papers and foreign relations outside the Bill's purview. The exemptions can be seen as a "dilution" of the Bill by activists, but are seen to be necessary after it was pointed out that revealing sensitive details regarding national security could become "lawful" if provisions...

-The Times of India In what will set the bar for India's nuclear contracts, Russia's plea that two reactors planned at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu — apart from units 1 and 2 — be exempted from provisions of the tough nuclear liability law may not be accepted.  Reactors 1 and 2 that are to go on stream soon are not covered by the 2010 liability law that makes suppliers of a nuclear...

-The Economic Times The government has made key changes to the proposed Legislation for land acquisition, making it more attractive for industry by easing some of the stringent conditions, a person privy to the draft told ET. The rural development ministry has proposed to not implement the Legislation with retrospective effect, besides relaxing the requirements of consent from landowners, and tightening the definition of market value. The amended Bill has been rechristened 'The...

The Guwahati molestation incident throws light on the violence women face overtly and covertly in India, at home and outside. The shocking incident of the beating and molestation of a young woman by a mob in Guwahati in Assam on July 9 has exposed the ugly underbelly of modern, globalised India, where women face violence, covertly and overtly, at home and outside. The incident has also exposed the lackadaisical manner in...