-The Hindu A helpline in Odisha is empowering students to act as watchdogs to monitor implementation of the RTE Act, which completes three years in April "My teacher does not come to school," speaks a little voice on one end of the phone line. At the other end, a woman responds reassuringly, asking for the child's details - name of the school, the district. Within a matter of days, the ‘teacher' is...
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Was U.S. baby infected with HIV at all? -R Prasad
-The Hindu Chennai: A few days after the news broke of a “functional cure” in a HIV-positive Mississippian baby aged two-and-a-half, many questions have been raised whether the baby was indeed infected with HIV. “There are many instances where the mother’s HIV particles (HIV RNA) can be present in the newborn’s blood,” Dr. N. Kumarasamy told this correspondent from Atlanta, U.S. Dr. Kumarasamy is the Chief Medical Officer at YRGCARE, Chennai, and is...
More »After 6 months in jail as 'terror suspect', a journalist returns-Johnson TA
-The Indian Express Bangalore: About six months ago, when he appeared in court for the first time after being named by the Bangalore Police in an alleged Lashkar-e-Toiba plot to target local right-wing media personalities, Muthi ur Rehman Siddiqui, 26, a reporter and sub-editor with the Deccan Herald newspaper here, still had the glint of youthful exuberance in his eyes. But now, the first thing that comes to mind on seeing Siddiqui...
More »A boon in the rural landscape: Data shows that the MGNREGA is doing more to create employment than many have argued recently -Neelakshi Mann, Varad Pande & Jairam Ramesh
-The Times of India Few government programmes are as debated in this country as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). Introduced by the UPA government in 200 backward districts in 2006, and extended to the entire country by 2007-08, MGNREGA has become a fact of life in rural India; on an average around 25% of rural households seek employment under the scheme annually. In recent times, it has become...
More »Press Council panel criticizes Bihar govt for gagging press
-The Times of India In a scathing indictment of the Bihar government, a Press Council report has leveled serious charges against the state establishment including attempts to censor the media, misuse its "monopolistic status" for giving advertisements and arm-twisting newspapers to publish positive stories. Comparing the situation to Emergency, the three-member team that recently submitted its report to PCI chief Markandey Katju said that the Nitish Kumar government was forcing the...
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