-The Hindu Without adequate preparations for its consequences, the State has gone ahead with the merger of small schools with the larger ones. Is there a way out? The Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani's act of consulting an astrologer in Rajasthan may be a personal choice, but her mention of possible amendments to the Right to Education (RTE) Act has definitely created a mess in the State. While she has...

-The Indian Express Eight years after the Sachar committee report on the condition of Muslims and creation of a Ministry of Minority Affairs, a post-Sachar evaluation committee, headed by former JNU professor Amitabh Kundu, has concluded that though a start has been made in addressing development deficits of the community, government interventions have not quite matched in scale the large numbers of the marginalised. Poverty levels among Muslims, the committee found, remained...

-The Hindu Though studies point to an increase in the pace of glacier wastage in the western Himalayas, long-term monitoring is required to study glacier evolution and its relation to the climate At dawn, Mohd Soheb begins an arduous trek to the high camp at Chhota Shigri glacier in the Pir Panjal range in Spiti valley, Himachal Pradesh. From the PWD guesthouse at Chota Dara, he walks down to the Chandra river...

-The Hindu The West Bengal Chief Minister said the decision will benefit nearly 76 per cent of the people who avail treatment in government hospitals in the State. Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has declared that patients will get free treatment in all government hospitals and health centers across the State, other than Medical Colleges in Kolkata. Ms. Banerjee said the decision will benefit nearly 76 per cent of people in Bengal who...

-The Telegraph Ranchi: Efficiency is another matter, but state police are as good or bad as their more hyped counterparts in Maharashtra or Delhi as far as not following Right to Information (RTI) Act goes. A nationwide study on proactive information disclosure through police and prison websites across 29 states by Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, a New Delhi-based NGO, released yesterday, showed none followed the transparency regimen prescribed under RTI Act, Section...