-The Times of India   By failing to honour a Madras high court order directing the territorial administration to notify the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 before November 1 this year, the Puducherry government has earned the dubious distinction of being one of the last states in the country to comply. The high court in its order dated August 1, directed the Puducherry government to notify the...

An independent study says some 250 thermal power projects that have got clearances may be meant just to grab land and water resources. THERE have been a growing number of headlines that speak of an energy crisis and the energy deficit in India in the last few years. The disparities in the demand-supply scenario, the increasing prospects of disruptions in the global supply of fuel and the consequent results of higher...

Private school admissions may soon see a sweeping change if the government has its way after notifying rules under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act. While the government plans to ensure 25% reservation for underprivileged children by assigning officials to closely monitor the admission process in all schools, including unaided private institutions, a proposal to impose a firstcome-first-served rule may do away with preferential admissions...

The contrast could not have been starker. On one side is an English teacher leading fishermen and villagers, using his unbridled oratory to spew propaganda against Kudankulam’s ready-to-start nuclear plant that will produce 1,000MW. Arraigned against him is a group of engineers who have devoted their lives to building nuclear power plants. Affable, soft-spoken and hurt that the world’s “safest” nuclear plant that they have built has not been allowed to...

On Friday, the Prime Minister launched the Shiksha Ka Haq Abhiyan — a yearlong nationwide campaign for promoting the Right to Education (RTE). As these efforts gain ground, the country faces one important choice: should elementary education be delivered through the current model, which focuses on the expansion of schooling through a top-down, centralised delivery system? Or should we use the RTE as an opportunity to fundamentally alter the current...