-The Hindu The assault on the Right to Education Act and government schools is motivated. It is definitely not in the interest of India’s children, especially those from less privileged households The public education system (PES) has for long been under fire. It is being painted as non-functioning, wasteful and un-improvable. The Right to Education Act (RTE) was designed to improve this system. Therefore, it is natural that the RTE will also...

-The Hindu Anthropologists study how local populations network in different parts of the globe Love it, or hate it, it is rare that you will ignore social media. A few anthropologists from across the world took this seriously enough to conduct an eight-country in-depth analysis on how local populations behave and interact across social media and how these platforms are impacting the way we live life. “Why we Post” is the culmination of...

-The Hindu The steps taken towards social democracy are being reversed. What we have now are social insurance policies from above. This subverts the entire project of giving voice to the voiceless. India has paid a heavy price for failing to institutionalise social democracy It is generally agreed that theories of social democracy, in comparison to theories of formal political democracy, take cognisance of background inequalities that hamper the realisation of basic...

-Livemint.com Investments via gender lens increase access to capital for women and girls, improve gender equality, say experts Less than 7% of all philanthropic dollars find their way to programmes designed specifically for girls and women—not a promising figure if gender equality in the world is the ultimate goal. This was the startling finding of a 2014 study by Women Moving Millions, an international not-for-profit agency. To improve gender equality, experts suggest...

-Frontline Higher education has been growing from strength to strength in recent years, with State public and private universities dominating the scene. CENTRAL universities are suddenly in the eye of a storm in the country. First it was the University of Hyderabad, where the suicide of Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula led to nationwide student protests and drew universal condemnation of the authorities, and now the nation is gripped by the...