With the threat of a failed monsoon and an impending drought, the need for public works and for greater numbers of workers will arise in many states, says National Advisory Council member Aruna Roy Despite all its seminal achievements, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Gurantee Act is at the receiving end of the most controversial critiques any government programme has received so far. We could perhaps invert this to say...

-The Times of India   Higher education in India should not perpetuate inequality of opportunity It's admission time again. Charming images of 'freshers' entering the campus and glossy advertisements of the universities we had never heard before hide the harsh reality of educational mortality from school to higher education. Elaborate coverage of rising cutoffs and entrance tests draw our attention to individual merit and luck. We tend to forget the overwhelming role of...

-The Business Standard   MGNREGA review should be based on more research Both acclaim and accusations have been hurled at the UPA’s landmark scheme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee programme, or MGNREGA. Usually, the reasons for the criticism or praise are less-than-completely supported. For example, it has been both praised and condemned for providing local wage employment to the jobless, thus curbing outmigration; similarly, it is claimed that the scheme has...

-The Hindustan Times Circumstantial Evidence of a tiger sacrifice was not enough. It took a forensic examination to indicate that a tigress was killed deep inside the Corbett National Park more than a month ago - not a jackal as forest officials claimed. On May 24, Corbett staff found the innards of an animal in the core area of the tiger reserve. Wildlife activists claimed it was a tiger's. But Ranjan Mishra, director...

-The Times of India Seventeen months after it registered a FIR (first information report) in the Adarsh society scam, the CBI on Wednesday filed a chargesheet against 13 politicians, bureaucrats and retired military officers. The case involving the 31-storeyed tower in tony Colaba had led to a chief minister stepping down and seven high-profile personalities, including a former BMC chief and retired military officers, getting arrested.  The charges filed were for criminal...