-The Hindu After a long and painful period of neglect, India promises to devote attention to the issue of preparing all children for primary schooling. The draft National Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) policy aims to end the "current laissez faire situation" that has led to the mushrooming of expensive crèches, play schools, nursery schools and so on that adhere to no particular standard. On the other hand, there is...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Stung by the recent spate of judgments ushering in a series of electoral reforms, the Centre on Monday told the Supreme Court that judiciary should keep off a plea to bar persons, against whom charges have been FRAmed in serious offences, from contesting polls as the issue fell squarely within the domain of legislature and government's policy arena. "The issue agitated through this petition are policy...

-The United Nations Some 3.5 billion people, half the world's population, lack crucial waste management services, significantly harming environment, health and economies, the United Nations reported today, stressing that recycling and proper treatment can be a literal and metaphorical gold mine. "Open dumping, the most prevalent waste disposal method in many countries, can lead to acute health impacts for those living closest to dumping sites, most often the urban poor," the UN...

-The Hindu The Supreme Court's Interim order defining Aadhaar from subsidies has left the Centre grappling with the future of the Unique Identification programme. It must now provide a clear roadmap to citizens and address their genuine concerns. Unique, universal, ubiquitous: three words that Mr Nandan Nilekani used to describe the ambitions of the UID project. Every person across the population of over 1.2 billion was to be uniquely identified. Every person...

-Outlook Bhubaneshwar: With the outlawed CPI (Maoist) targeting tribal youths living in dense forests and hills, Odisha government has asked departments to work out an integrated development plan for bridging critical gaps in inFRAstructure development and livelihood promotion of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG). The PVTGs which have been the target of Maoists included Boihor, Mankidia, hill Khadia, Juanga, Lodha and Paudibhuyan, Soura, Kutia Kondha, Dongaria Kondha, Lanjia Soura, Bonda, Diyadi and...