-The Hindu Raipur: Launching the Congress party's ‘Parivartan Yatra' (March for Change) on Thursday in Bastar, a senior Central Minister, Jairam Ramesh, compared Mahendra Karma, the tribal leader, with a "slow tiger." "Mahendra Karma was called the ‘Bastar Tiger.' But the tiger has slowed down over the years," said the Minister in the presence of Mr. Karma and about two thousand Gond tribals. Sitting on the dais, Mr. Karma's reactions changed...

-The Telegraph The Supreme Court today raised more questions on the appointment of contract or ad hoc teachers by some states, saying "a populist measure cannot destroy the fabric of education". It asked the Gujarat government to furnish by Monday a "long chart" explaining the rules, eligibility and qualifications prescribed for such appointments. "A populist measure cannot destroy the fabric of education. Unless you give us (details of) the selection process adopted, we...

-The Hindu Khunti (Jharkhand): On the night of April 30, worshippers in the Raja Rani temple in Naurhi village in Adki block near Ranchi were singing, chanting and celebrating the new temple in their village when a group of CPI (Maoists) entered the temple and shot Dilip Acharya, the oldest of the three brothers who built the temple, dead as he lay asleep on the floor. The men then addressed...

-The Times of India The new office will give real time analysis of the government's social programmes, says Jairam Ramesh At a time when the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government is facing flak for a series of alleged corruption scams, the ministry of rural development that has an annual budget of approximately ` 800 billion has decided to go ahead and create an office of concurrent evaluation. The proposal for a...

-The Hindu The south leads in the number of medical and nursing seats, with for-profit private colleges dominating the scene. It will take major capacity expansion in the government sector to meet WHO norms on access to health professionals. India has achieved major organisational and technological successes but the health system's performance is abysmal. This cannot be attributed to poverty. It is poor health that places India 134th in the Human Development...