Like doctors and lawyers, teachers may soon be subject to a “code of professional ethics”, which includes clauses for disciplinary action over corporal punishment, private tuitions and other “anti-community” activities. If accepted by the government, the proposed code would apply to school teachers across the country, from primary to secondary and senior secondary levels, and across government as well as private schools, with the aim of restoring “dignity and integrity” to...

Indian civil society was dismayed and horror-struck when human rights activist Dr Binayak Sen, who has spent over three decades caring for the poor in tribal areas of central India, was sentenced to life imprisonment for ‘sedition’ along with two others, Piyush Guha and Narayan Sanyal by a Raipur Sessions Court judge.  Protests are taking place everywhere in the country and the members of India’s vibrant civil society, peoples’ movements,...

The Centre is planning to increase the spending on social activities with a rise in government revenue, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said here today. "With rise in government revenues we will increase it further," he said at the inauguration of a Union Bank branch in the Murshidabad district. The government is keeping aside a major portion of the budget for social activities and this share is going up from Rs 2.43 lakh...

70-lakh people will get security of dwelling, marine resources Draft text of Bill posted on Environment Ministry website Minister proposes eco-restoration-cum-conservation project at salt memorial The Fisherfolks Rights Bill, guaranteeing traditional marine rights, is on the anvil, Union Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh said on Sunday. Conceived on the lines of the Forest Rights Act that guarantees traditional user rights and land rights to tribals, Adivasis and forest dwellers, this Bill would...

Union Law Minister M. Veerappa Moily on Saturday said the Centre was committed to implementing all recommendations of the Rajinder Sachar Committee on minorities' welfare. In a brief chat with journalists, on the sidelines of the 19th “International educational conference” of the American Federation of Muslims of Indian Origin here, Mr. Moily said the Centre had already identified 90 districts with a large concentration of minorities where it would implement the...