U.P.'s GDP grew at 7.28 per cent in the past five years, but the State ranks low in virtually every area of socio-economic development. IF statistics on gross domestic product (GDP) are the only criteria to evaluate the performance of a government, the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) government in Uttar Pradesh will have to be rated as one with highly impressive credentials. For, India's most populous State has recorded a...

The Union minister for communications and information technology, Kapil Sibal, is a knowledgeable lawyer, and someone who is reportedly committed to the freedom of speech. He would not LIGhtly propose regulations that contravene Article 19(1)(a) (freedom of speech and expression) of our Constitution. So how is one to explain his recent proposals on controlling online speech? Or even the immoderate IT Rules that have been in force since April? This controversy...

Teacher running coaching centre wins appeal against M.P. Government The Supreme Court has directed the Madhya Pradesh Government to pay a compensation of Rs. 2 lakh to a teacher running a coaching centre for handcuffing and keeping him in police custody without any valid reason. A Bench of Justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Desai, however, rejected appellant Hardeep Singh's plea for prosecution of the Jabalpur Collector and other government officials for want...

-The Times of India   In less than a fortnight since the government notified rules under Right To Education (RTE) Act 2009, hundreds of students started a postcard campaign on Tuesday highLIGhting various ways in which schools are flouting the norms. Addressed to the Chief Justice of Delhi high court, the postcards brought to LIGht the unfavourable conditions prevalent in government and MCD run schools. The first day of the campaign was conducted...

-Daily Bhaskar Despite huge allocation of funds for tribal upliftment, a whopping sum of Rs 2700 crore is still left unspent in tribal dominated Madhya Pradesh. The unspent funds are 14 per cent of the total allocated budget. The above revelations came into LIGht after a study carried out by ‘Sanket’, an organisation that works on budget allocation. Under Tribal sub-plan every year, budget is allocated to 37 against 53 administrative departments. Sanket carried...