-The Times of India NEW DELHI: HRD ministry has categorically ruled out extension of three-year deadline to states who failed to create the necessary infrastructure to implement the Right to Education (RTE) Act, whose deadline expired on March 31. Acceding to the extension request would have meant amending the RTE Act. But at the end of 61st meeting of the Central Advisory Board on Education (CABE) HRD minister M M Pallam Raju...

-Tehelka A public issue is not truly public unless Markandey Katju has passed judgement. Rahul Kotiyal and Ajachi Chakrabarti stand downwind "Journalists" writes Markandey Katju, with little sense of irony, "comment on everything under the sun." He goes on to say that when the shoe is on the other foot, when someone comments on journalism, it is misconstrued as an attack on press freedom. That when he announces he is appointing a...

-The Hindu   Karnataka tops in transgender voter registration Bangalore: A conscious effort to assert their status as the third gender seems to be growing in the transgender community in Karnataka if numbers are any indication. Karnataka - at 2,125 - has more number of voters registered as ‘others' compared to any other State in the Assembly elections held after 2009. Voters and candidates are enumerated under the categories of ‘male', ‘female' and...

-The Telegraph Many Indians stand in solidarity with the protest launched by the academic community in the University of Pennsylvania against the decision to invite Narendra Modi, writes Prasenjit Bose S L. Rao's criticisms of the academics of the University of Pennsylvania, who had initiated a campaign against Wharton Business School's invitation to Narendra Modi, in his article, "The trip that never was" (March 18), are not only unwarranted but they also...

-The Times of India The government has provided a back-door entry for contractors and the food industry to corner the lucrative ICDS food supply budget through the National Food Security Bill - a move that had seen controversy earlier too but could now become part of the law if passed by Parliament. In a footnote to one of the three schedules of the bill, the government has provided that children between 6...