Important Amendment in Right to Free and Compulsory Education Amendment Bill could not be taken up in Rajya Sabha on Friday. The Bill sought to treat children with disabilities as disadvantaged group under the Right to Education (RTE) Act. While the Left was keen on the Bill's passage, BJP said there was not enough time to discuss it. The party wanted a four-hour discussion on the Bill, whereas Left said it...

Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister Laxmi Narain today claimed the state's new rehabilitation policy for land acquisition was "the best" in India. Addressing farmers, the Minister claimed he has studied the land acquisition policies of all states and the new rehabilitation policy in UP was formulated by a committee after scanning and evaluating other states' policies. He said that under the new policy farmers will get one time payment of Rs.1.85...

Wants limit to be raised to 49% Keen to enter the growing insurance sector, U.S. billionaire Warren Buffett on Friday wondered if India would raise the FDI limit in the sector to 49 per cent. The U.S.-based company is keenly watching the developments regarding further opening of the sector to foreign investment. Mr. Buffett, whose group Berkshire Hathaway recently entered the Indian insurance market, called on IRDA Chairman J. Harinarayan here and...

Aruna Roy, a Magsaysay award winner former bureaucrat, was closely involved in the drafting of the Right to Information (RTI) Act. As a member of the UPA's National Advisory Council (NAC), among other things, she has been conveying to the government the views of civil society on the proposed changes in the transparency act. On the sidelines of 3rd national convention of National Campaign for People’s Right to Information, held...

The Jammu and Kashmir government has for the first time shown willingness to amend or replace the Public Safety Act, which allows detention without trial for up to two years. The move follows human rights watchdog Amnesty International’s scathing criticism of the government for the law’s extensive use in the state in the past two decades. An Amnesty report, titled “A lawless law”, says that up to 20,000 people, including children, were...