-Bloomberg When farmers in the scorched village of Horti in Western India were struggling to raise money for a canal, they turned to an unlikely source: a crowdfunding website called FuelADream. The farmers had never heard of crowdfunding before, but a local non-profit group suggested the site and helped them write a proposal that explained how a canal would help feed local families. Within weeks, they had raised Rs 300,000 ($4,490) from...

-The Hindu Democracies are not sustained by obedient productive units in so-called knowledge-based economies. But that is precisely what the new National education Policy envisages “Public policy,” according to Douglas Gomery, “is the making of governmental rules and regulations to benefit not one individual but society as a whole. It asks, what is the best way to conceive and evaluate policies aimed at the public as a whole and its various subgroups?”...

-The Times of India DEHRADUN: A report on single-teacher schools across the country, tabled in Parliament on Monday, has thrown up some alarming statistics on the education scenario in India. A solitary teacher is running the show in as many as 1,05,630 government elementary and secondary schools in the country, with MP emerging as the worst state where 17,874 of the institutions have just one teacher each. UP has the second-highest number...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: A panel set up by the human resource development ministry has recommended a uniform syllabus in math and science subjects for Classes XI-XII across all senior secondary boards. The decision is likely to be implemented from the 2017-18 academic year, an HRD ministry official said. It is learnt that the recommendation is acceptable to all 30 senior secondary boards in the country. However, the panel headed by A. Ashok,...

-PTI New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said his government plans to develop 300 villages across the country as growth centres for the area by creating city like infrastructure, from education and healthcare to digital connectivity. The National Rurban Mission aims to provide better quality of life and employment in villages, he said at the townhall organised to mark the second anniversary of myGov app. There is no dearth of smart cities,...