-The Business Standard Kolkata: Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee, Ford Foundation International professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has slammed the government's Right To Education (RTE) programme. This, he said, was only a step towards ensuring a means of livelihood for teachers. Banerjee said the programme, implemented in 2009, lacked sense. He said he wasn't hopeful about the outcome of the initiative. "It is simply for the teachers, by the teachers,...

-Live Mint Health ministry’s plan for a shorter medical degree course is aimed at addressing manpower shortage in rural healthcare A parliamentary committee on Tuesday rejected the health ministry’s plan to introduce a shorter medical degree course aimed at addressing manpower shortages in rural healthcare. It said the proposed Bachelor in Rural Healthcare course would legitimize differences in the quality of medical treatment in rural and urban settings.   “We discussed the issue at length...

-The Hindu Those opposing Justice Katju’s suggestion of minimum qualifications for journalists are out of touch with reality Some years ago, the journalism entrance test at a career development institute in Mumbai had this objective-type question: Kofi Annan is (a) a Nigerian footballer (b) lead singer of a Sierra Leone pop group (c) a Sri Lankan delicacy (d) Secretary-General of the United Nations. The 100-odd candidates who appeared for the test were...

-Outlook 2,500 civilians, a majority of them marginalized tribals, were killed by the Naxals in last five years, the Home Ministry said. Since 2007, more than 2,500 civilians were killed by the CPI(Maoist) cadres and a majority of them are tribals who are branded as police informers before being brutally tortured and killed. According to the Home Ministry, tribals and economically underprivileged sections have been the biggest victims of the protracted "people's war"...

-The Indian Express In all its versions, the food security bill places an unbearable fiscal burden, further distorts agriculture The design of policy in the revised version of the food security law proposed by the food ministry — cabinet approval for which was deferred on Monday — will make a bad idea worse. It is even less concerned about the imperatives of fiscal sustainability and the needs of the Indian population. Providing...