Less than a week after India announced a record harvest, Hindustan Times has learnt that the nation’s main grain-buying agency is running out of money for its massive nationwide purchase operation. Over the last month, the state-run Food Corporation of India (FCI) has twice stopped payments to state governments, various grain-purchasing agencies and rice millers who buy wheat and rice, the main food crops, from millions of farmers, a senior...

The Supreme Court on Thursday, refusing to stay at this stage the Madras High Court judgment striking down as unconstitutional an amendment to the Tamil Nadu Uniform System of School Education Act, extended the time limit for distribution of textbooks till August 2. The High Court by its July 18 judgment had directed the State to forthwith distribute the textbooks printed under the Uniform System of School Education to enable teachers...

This essay describes and compares Parliament and the Supreme Court and examines the relationship between them. Parliament may still be a great institution, but its members are no longer great men. How long can a great institution remain great in the hands of small men? The SC has held its place in the public esteem rather better than the Lok Sabha, despite the occasional allegation of financial impropriety. Parliament, the...

The debate on Right to Education (RTE) Act has begun again with the Centre on Thursday remaining firm on implementing it without any dilution and insisting on 25% inclusion of underprivileged children by private schools. Though implemented in 2009, Karnataka is among many states yet to notify the rules for implementation. The Times of India spoke to primary and secondary education minister Vishweshwara Hegde Kageri to get a status report...

“Freedom from fear” and “Punishment-free zone” read the slogans on the school walls. These signify the end of corporal punishment. They take on a different meaning, though, when schools are occupied by the police, as they are around Dhinkia and Govindpur, the villages resisting the State's takeover of their farmland for Posco's mega power and steel project ( The Hindu , July 13-14). Children here grabbed national attention when they joined...