-The Indian Express New Delhi: Spelling relief to children of migrants seeking admission under the Economically Weaker Section quota, Directorate of Education (DoE) has amended the definition of "children belonging to weaker section". It scrapped the minimum three-year residency period that was mandated for seeking admission under the quota in Delhi schools. The Department issued a notification to all private-unaided schools in the capital acting on a High Court order last month. Coming...

-The Hindu     While it is apparent that due process has been subverted to the advantage of a few by the political executive, it is equally true that there has been some politicisation of the civil service Two recent events have focussed attention on the relationship between the political executive and public servants. At the international conference on corruption organised by the Central Bureau of Investigation on November 11, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh...

-Economic and Political Weekly While automobiles contribute signifi cantly to pollution and environmental degradation, and affect human health, the authorities who are supposed to understand the gravity and the urgency of the problem pay no attention to the alternatives. Two cases presented in this article demonstrate that activists and experts, even High Court judges, cannot change the situation, if the authorities do not want to play ball. Please click here to read...

-DNA An allocation of Rs 17,700 crore in the 2013-2014 Union Budget but not a single accountable rupee spent for pre-school education or a plate of food for the homeless children in Mumbai. Yoshita Sengupta investigates the absence of homeless children from ICDS registers Mumbai: In 2010, Ms. Rekha, a homeless woman living on the footpath in Mumbai in her last month of pregnancy, slipped while trying to cross a wall. She...

-The Indian Express The rural health cadre will not create two classes of doctors, it will help fill two different needs. The cabinet is pondering the idea of a cadre of mid-level health practitioners, a plan that has been fiercely resisted by medical associations because they worry it will dilute the worth of MBBS graduates. It has also been recently rejected by the parliamentary standing committee on health, for allegedly creating two...