-Financial Express Among the six states studied by Icrier, Gujarat spends the most on agriculture R&E (0.59%), followed by Bihar (0.50%), Punjab (0.41%), Odisha (0.25%), Uttar Pradesh (0.17%) and Madhya Pradesh (0.24%). The government’s expenditure on agricultural research and extension education services is not only very low but also heavily skewed in favour of crops, even as the dairy sector has a rapidly increasing share in the gross value of output...

-The Telegraph Economist who served as finance minister dies at 90 Calcutta: Former Bengal finance minister Ashok Mitra, who also served as the chief economic adviser to the Indian government, passed away in a city nursing home on Tuesday morning. The Marxist economist was 90 and had been suffering from age-related complications. His wife Gouri had died 10 years ago. An economist by Training - with a PhD under Nobel laureate economist Jan Tinbergen -...

-The Telegraph Where Indian children stumble in Mathematics New Delhi: A national survey has found Class VIII pupils in Bengal performing below the national average in mathematics, and children across the country floundering in geometry, particularly in calculating the volumes of cubes and cylinders. The children, however, tended to do better with the algebra questions asked in the National Achievement Survey, conducted by the National Council of Educational Research and Training. Some 22 lakh...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Ayurveda, unani or homoeopathy healers cannot practise without getting themselves officially registered, the Supreme Court has ruled while expressing concern at quacks "playing with lives". Practitioners of alternative medicine need to be registered under the Indian Medicine Central Council Act, for which they are required to obtain a degree or diploma from a recognised institution teaching these courses. "Earlier, there were very few institutions imparting teaching and Training to...

-The Pioneer Concerned over serious irregularities in selection to public posts, the Supreme Court has suggested the Centre to videograph all selection proceedings by the Public Service Commission and State Selection Boards. In an order passed recently, the apex court even asked the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) to explore the possibility of installing CCTVs at the venues where examination and interview takes place to ensure that in the event any...