With a battle already brewing between central and state governments over the share of financial liabilities to implement the much-debated Right to Education (RTE) Act, activists fear that such a tussle would be a deadly blow to the law itself. While Union human resource development minister Kapil Sibal has strictly asked all the states to mobilise funds to implement the Act, most of the state governments, including Karnataka have expressed their...
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More about Dalit hopes and despair by S Viswanathan
Last week's column, “The plight of Dalits and the news media” (October 25, 2010), has generated a lively and interesting response from several readers. The column was about the prioritisation of the tasks before the National Commission for the Scheduled Castes (NCSC) by its new Chairman, P.L. Punia (not P.J. Punia as erroneously mentioned in the column.) The concern of most who wrote was over the failure of successive governments...
More »States asked to appoint dedicated staff for rural development
The Centre on Thursday asked the states to appoint dedicated staff in each panchayat for effective implementation of rural development schemes, saying no goals could be achieved without them. “We are spending Rs40 lakh each year on various functionaries in Panchayats and there is no one (visible) except the gram sevaks,” union minister for rural development C. P. Joshi said while addresing a conference of state ministers on total sanitation here. “There...
More »New polio vaccine more effective in reducing disease by Ania Lichtarowicz
A new vaccine against the polio virus has helped reduce the number of cases by more than 90%. Research published online in the journal The Lancet, shows that the new vaccine is significantly better at protecting children against polio than the current popular vaccine. It has already been used in Afghanistan, India and Nigeria. The scientists behind the work believe this new vaccine could help to finally eradicate the disease. Disease elimination Mass vaccination campaigns...
More »India malaria deaths hugely underestimated, says report by Ania Lichtarowicz
The number of people dying from malaria in India has been hugely underestimated, according to new research. The data, published in the Lancet, suggests there are 13 times more malaria deaths in India than the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates. The authors conclude that more than 200,000 deaths per year are caused by malaria. The WHO said the estimate produced by this study appears too high. The research was funded by the US National...
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