-The Indian Express April 1 marked the third anniversary of the passage of the Right of Children for Free and Compulsory Education (RTE). There is little argument that the implementation of the RTE in these three years has been less than satisfactory. Deadlines for the enforcement of input norms - infrastructure, pupil-teacher ratios - have come and gone and potentially game-changing provisions, like 25 per cent reservation for economically weaker sections...

-Bloomberg The corpse of Indian farmer Bengali Singh burned to ash atop a blazing funeral pyre on the banks of the river Ganges in 2006. Five years later, the dead man was recorded as being paid by India's $33 billion rural jobs program to dig an irrigation canal in Jharkhand state. Officials in his village and the surrounding region used at least 500 identities, including those of Singh, a disabled child of...

-Live Mint Reimbursing schools that reserve 25% seats for underprivileged children may end up costing the govt about Rs.16,000 cr The central government is faced with the prospect of a large bill to pay for the implementation of one of the key elements of the right to education (RTE) legislation-reimbursing private schools that reserved 25% of their seats for underprivileged children-even as the 31 March deadline for most of the law's other...

-The Hindu Hyderabad: The Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) sub-plans, for whose implementation the Government adopted a legislation recently, have finally been named "Indiramma Kalalu (dreams). The implementation of these plans is being launched formally by Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy in West Godavari and Khammam districts on Friday, marking the celebrations of 106th jayanti of late Jagjivan Ram. The Government is taking pride that AP has emerged as the...

-Live Mint Subsidized loans given to farmers through KCCs could very well be the next big source of NPAs for banks Mumbai: A surge in exposure to farm debt through Kisan Credit Cards (KCCs) could emerge as a risk for India's state-run banks, according to experts. Subsidized loans are given to farmers through KCCs by state-owned banks. Until March 2012, the outstanding amount on such loans was`1.6 trillion through 20.3 million cards, as...