-PTI In a huge relief to Maharashtra government, the judicial commission of inquiry looking into the Adarsh housing scam has held that the land on which the controversial building stands belongs to the state and not the Army. The two-member panel, which had submitted its interim report to the government last Friday, has also held that the building was not reserved for war heroes and Kargil widows. The interim report was discussed by...

A fourth of school students will need to be from less-privileged sections of society following an SC ruling on the RTE Act. While this can bring in social transformation, there are implementation challenges. Educationists share some solutions with Labonita Ghosh  Problem 1: WHO WILL FOOT THE BILL?  The government has offered to pay for the 25% of less-privileged students who will now have to be admitted into private schools, but it's not...

-The Hindu Dalit rights groups in Bantwal attempted to stop the official celebration of Ambedkar Jayanti on Saturday citing the Government's “failure” to take action to fulfil its constitutional mandate of uplifting the conditions of the poor. Eye-witnesses said the groups initially requested the officials and guests assembled not to conduct the proceedings as planned. When they decided to go ahead ignoring the warnings, the Dalits reportedly took away the portrait of...

The Union home ministry has identified bureaucrats who are being “cultivated” by foreign intelligence operatives to push their agenda through the granting of personal favours, such as courses in foreign universities. In a strongly worded note to all secretaries of the Union government, home secretary RK Singh has asked heads of departments to restrain bureaucrats from hobnobbing with foreign embassies in India. While promising to take action against officials who have been...

Nothing illustrates the threat that the FIR raj poses to personal liberty more starkly than the arbitrary manner in which two complaints in the cartoon case were pursued. One complaint was filed against Jadavpur University professor Ambikesh Mahapatra by a Trinamul supporter, accusing him of emailing “obscene” content about the chief minister. The second was lodged by Mahapatra, accusing four persons with Trinamul links of assaulting him. The strikingly divergent police response...