-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The government plans to bring in a regulatory framework to rein in play schools, creches and day care centres' charging exorbitant fees without providing standardized curriculum and learning aids. The policy, which includes implementation and monitoring of early child care and education for children below six years, is likely to be discussed in the Union Cabinet on Thursday. The women and child development (WCD) ministry...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Are you taking proper care of pregnant inmates and ensuring that the children born to women prisoners do not grow up in the shadow of criminals? the Supreme Court asked the states and ordered inspection of their prisons. A bench of Chief Justice P Sathasivam and Justices Ranjana Desai and Ranjan Gogoi on Thursday ordered, "We direct all the State Legal Services Authorities to inspect all...

-The Times of India In English Vinglish, her big comeback movie last year, Sridevi's Shashi Godbole was a small-scale caterer in Pune before the movie's arc took her to the US. We saw her efficiency at making boondi laddoos, we saw that her clients loved them and we know she made a little money from it. But we also saw how little her enterprise mattered to her family, and that her...

-Frontline How far will the proposed women's bank help marginalised sections when women's SHGs get little support and find it hard even to open accounts in public sector banks? WHILE the recent announcement of a women's bank in the Union Budget has been touted as a progressive measure for the financial inclusion of women, no concrete measures have been forthcoming to make all existing public sector banks sensitive to the needs...

-Down to Earth Only 25 days of work provided per family as against the guaranteed 100 days of work; wages paid late in 55 per cent cases District administrations in rural West Bengal are resorting to innovative ways in their hurry to spend funds allocated under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme (MNREGS). In the Maoist-affected West Midnapore district, petty contractors are doing the earth work earmarked for MNREGS with...