Mumbai: Certain provisions in the Right to Education (RTE) Act could be diluted at the time of its implementation in the state. Senior ministers in the state Cabinet, who are affiliated to private aided schools and educational institutes, have expressed reservations regarding certain clauses incorporated in the Act, which was enacted by the centre in 2009 and has since been implemented in over 12 states. The state school and sports department...

The Mumbai blasts have again brought into focus the health infrastructure in Bihar, especially the state capital, and raised questions on whether the city is equipped to deal with emergency situations. The intensive care unit (ICU) at Patna Medical College and Hospital — the premier tertiary care centre in the state — itself needs emergency treatment owing to the poor condition of infrastructure and logistics. Most of its equipment are defunct...

Mumbai: Former Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) chairman Anil Kakodkar has stated that the French-made Areva European pressurized reactors, which India plans to import for the Jaitapur nuclear power project in Ratnagiri district, were tested. "It is wrong to say that they were untested reactors. They are based on previous reactor experience," he asserted, while pointing out that other countries were constructing similar reactors. He was addressing nearly 400 students and...

There will soon be a new set of glass doors at Krishi Bhavan. The newly elevated Cabinet Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh plans to bring the doors — a signature element of his interior décor right from his early days at the Commerce Ministry — to his new office. Over the last two tumultuous years at the Environment Ministry, those doors have symbolised the transparency and accessibility he claims...

When Sujatha’s husband learned that she had conceived just five months after they got married, he became agitated over what he called her "ill-timed pregnancy". To worsen her husband’s anxiety, a test to determine the sex of the foetus showed she was carrying a girl. Sujatha, a public school teacher, and her husband, a civil engineer – who asked that their full names be withheld – are from well-off and educated...