-Express News Service   The government today decided to create a 4.5 per cent sub-quota for backward minorities within the 27 per cent quota for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in Jobs and admission to educational institutions.   The political significance of the move lies in its timing just ahead of elections in Uttar Pradesh. The sub-quota was one of the Congress’s 2009 poll promises, but it appears in the current context to be targeted...

-The Times of India   Bapi Sarkhel, in the eye of a storm since the December 14 violence near Poscoproject site in Jagatsinghpur, said on Thursday certain politicians seeking his arrest had benefited from him in the past, but turned against him as they saw him as a threat. Police has booked him on charges of fomenting trouble in the proposed Posco steel plant site and attacking anti-land acquisition villagers in the...

The central government claims that allowing foreign direct investment into India’s retail sector will benefit small farmers, expand employment and lower food inflation. What has been the experience in India with organised retail so far and what has been the global experience with FDI? Sukhpal Singh (sukhpal@iegindia.org) is currently at the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi. After being under relentless attack for a week, the United Progressiv Alliance government was forced to...

Employment Guarantee Scheme experts in the state have slammed Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar’s proposal of giving a break of three months to the scheme during the farming season every year. Activists claimed that the Pawar’s own state has been implementing this suggestions for years now. The proposal also has been termed as ‘pro-capitalist and pro- industrialist’ by critics. Pawar, in his letter to the prime minister, had suggested that since the...

Notwithstanding Rahul Gandhi's reported assurances to the AIMPLB to keep madrassasoutside the purview of the RTE Act, there is an urgent need to formalise madrassa education. Almost 90% of underprivileged Muslim children attend madrassas. However, devoid of a modern curriculum, madrassas are unable to equip these students for the contemporary job market. This in turn limits their economic opportunities. By bringing madrassas under the provisions of the RTE Act, the Islamic seminaries...