Eight Indian States are home to 421 million multidimensionally poor people, more than the figure of 410 million in 26 poorest African countries. The Multidimensional Poverty Index — which identifies serious simultaneous deprivations in health, education and income at the household level in 104 countries — brought out in the latest United Nations Human Development Report has calculated that South Asia is home to half of the world's multi-dimensionally poor population,...

The Karnataka government has made it clear that the ball is in the Centre's court to ensure implementation of Right to Education (RTE). At a conference on RTE organized by Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and Centre for Educational and Social Studies (CESS) on Tuesday, primary and secondary education minister Visweshwara Hegde Kageri said: "Unless the Centre releases its share of funds, it will be difficult to implement RTE." The government has received 1,700...

All school children across the country will soon have unique identification numbers (UID) which will help in tracking their movement in educational institutions and academic records. This follows the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Union Human Resource Development Ministry and the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) here on Wednesday. The system will help in tracking students' mobility by creating an electronic registry, right from the primary level through...

Even as the Centre is yet to firm up its view about screening of children for admission in residential schools, Andhra Pradesh has successfully given admission to 50,000 children in 600 state government-run residential schools without any entrance test and following the Right to Education Act in letter and spirit. Andhra residential schools, which have been consistently producing good results, have even given reservation higher than 25% stipulated under the RTE...

Vice-President M Hamid Ansari today said it is "anomalous" that over 250 million Indians were chronically undernourished although the nation has achieved self-sufficiency in foodgrain production. "This is anomalous looking at record food grain production in recent years," Ansari said quoting Food and Agriculture Organisation reports while delivering the convocation address at the Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) here. Stating that the country has achieved self sufficiency in food grain...