-The Times of India   With the Supreme Court bringing all recognized schools under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, the government will have to boost spending on its flagship programme to meet the estimated Rs 2.3 lakh crore needed to fund the initiative over 2010-2014.  RTE has been plagued with fund shortfalls with budgetary provision in the last two years being only half of what was estimated. The HRD ministry received Rs...

-The Hindustan Times It’s like having a stomachache because of rage. I think I can’t express it with any better idiom. I’m virtually at a loss of words after hearing the news of Ambikesh Mahapatra’s arrest this morning. It has left a bad taste in my mouth. What is this? Shame on the state government, I’m aghast. Not even in my wildest fantasy could I imagine such a situation. Even an...

-PTI   A Jadavpur university professor was arrested today for allegedly posting a cartoon on the internet showing West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee in poor light after she forced out Dinesh Trivedi and put Mukul Roy in his place as railway minister.  The arrest of Ambikesh Mohapatra, a chemistry professor, sparked an outrage with opposition CPM and the academic community saying the police action is "highly atrocious" and a "clear assault" on...

In what could be the first major signal of waning popularity of the UPA government’s flagship rural job scheme NREGS, data compiled by the Rural Development Ministry show that the number of households seeking employment under the scheme witnessed a drastic decline in 2011-12 fiscal as compared to the previous year. The data reveal that the number of households that availed jobs under NREGS declined by over 20 per cent during...

-The Business Standard   Now MGNREGA may bear the burden of PDS' failure This newspaper reported on Tuesday that the rural development ministry approached the food ministry suggesting that work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) be paid for using foodgrain. The impetus for the rural development ministry’s action is perhaps understandable. The Act provides for the possibility of a fraction of wages being paid in kind; the allocation...