-The Times of India LUCKNOW: Right to free and compulsory education (RTE) has failed to ensure cent-percent enrolment of children in schools In UP. Of the 28 states, UP has the unique distinction of having the maximum out of school children aged between 6-14 years, including dropouts as well as children who have never attended school. The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) findings, published by NGO Pratham, brings to light that...

-The Times of India AHMEDABAD: Even as the state government tom-toms its high enrollment rates in primary government schools in rural areas, it has done little to tackle teachers' deficit or to improve teaching quality in government schools. The poor quality of education - highlighted by the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2012, released on Friday - is being squarely blamed on the despairing and overburdened primary school teachers in...

-The Times of India The cry for speedy justice is going to be shriller in the next three decades as a conservative judicial estimate predicts that case pendency is going to register a five-fold increase to touch 15 crore but the judge strength will go up only four times to settle at 75,000. At present, nearly 19,000 judges, including 18,000 in trial courts, are dealing with a pendency of 3 crore cases,...

-The Hindu Farmers are opting for the real estate option due to poor agricultural conditions Pushed by unsettling agricultural conditions and pulled by lucrative real estate deals, farmers across the famed and fertile Cauvery delta in Tamil Nadu are selling their lands to real estate developers. In Amma Chatram, Marudhanallur, Tirunageswarm, Mathur, and in a host of other villages in Thanjavur and adjacent districts, farmlands are being converted to residential plots at...

-Kafila.org The village of Majure, in Chitradurga district, Karnataka, is once again in the news. It made the national headlines in 1998 when dalits in the village lodged a police complaint against members of the dominant Vokkaliga and Lingayat castes for an attack on their hamlet. As a consequence, several people were put behind bars. This time round, however, no formal complaint was lodged. Not that things have improved (rather, one could...