Today's Supreme Court judgment saying all private schools other than unaided minority schools must reserve one in four seats for poor children has provoked dismay in private schools. Principals of leading private schools in Delhi said the 25 per cent reservation would impose a severe financial burden on them. "The government should take care of education for the poor. Why cannot the government open new schools? Why are they pushing the 25...

-PTI A professor of chemistry of the Jadavpur University was arrested on Friday along with his neighbour for allegedly posting a cartoon on a popular social networking site involving chief minister Mamata Banerjee, railway minister Mukul Roy and former railway minister Dinesh Trivedi. DCP (south suburban division) Sujay Chanda said that professor Ambikesh MoHApatra was arrested along with a neighbour residing in east Jadavpur for spreading derogatory messages against "respectable persons". They would...

-PTI A professor of chemistry at the Jadhavpur University was today arrested for allegedly spreading derogatory messages against "respectable people" through the internet. "Professor Ambikesh MoHApatra has been arrested for spreading derogatory messages against respectable persons," Deputy Commissioner of Kolkata Police (south suburban division) Sujoy Chanda said. He, however, refused to divulge the names of the 'respectable persons' who have been defamed in the e-mail. He was arrested and taken to the...

The time has come for optimal pricing of water and power to prevent an unlimited pumping of groundwater and aid better coordination amongst competing demands for the scarce resource, Prime Minister ManMoHAn Singh said here on Tuesday. Dr. Singh's observations come at a time when there is a debate on the pricing of water and privatisation of services in the sector. The Ministry of Water Resources is working on a reforms-oriented...

-The Telegraph The Union urban development ministry has proposed three new taxes on private vehicle owners: on vehicle purchases, petrol and insurance. The aim is to fund public transport in cities and deter the use of private vehicles The Rs 40,000 crore that the ministry proposes to raise annually through the “green surcharge”, “green cess” and “urban transport tax” is to go to a national urban transport fund that will finance transport schemes. Urban...