-The United Nations   Faced with increased poaching and illegal trade in ivory and horns of elephants and rhinoceroses, 300 government and civil society experts worldwide are seeking to strengthen conservation with new financial mechanisms at a United Nations-backed meeting in Geneva this week. “Innovative financial solutions are required to achieve the huge conservation task before us,” John Scanlon, Secretary-General of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and...

In a major bid to overhaul governance in areas vulnerable to Left Wing Extremism, the government is all set to launch a Centrally-sponsored scheme for nearly 300 blocks across seven states. The scheme, christened as Central India Tribal Plan, would be implemented from the next year and executed by hand-picked officers with an impeccable career profile under the direct monitoring of the Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) to be set up...

Fighting the insurgency will need careful planning and sustained innovation. But New Delhi seems to have only big sacks of cash and even bigger words. Eleven weeks after the annihilation of an entire company of the Central Reserve Police Force in a Maoist ambush in April 2010 near the village of Tarmetla — the largest single loss India has ever suffered in a counter-insurgency campaign — Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram...

-The Business Standard   Asking questions does not amount to passing judgements Just as correlation does not establish causation, asking questions does not amount to passing judgements. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) is an important constitutional office that has a role to play in improving governance. However, going beyond one’s brief can always harm an institution in the long run and be counterproductive. An auditor’s dharma is to see if...

-The Hindu   A common syllabus and common curriculum is required to achieve the objectives of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, to provide free and compulsory education to every child of 6 to 14 years, the Supreme Court said on Tuesday. Dismissing a batch of appeals filed by the Tamil Nadu government and others against a Madras High Court judgment on implementation of the Uniform System of School Education, a Bench of...