The Centre on Thursday asked the states to appoint dedicated staff in each panchayat for effective implementation of rural development schemes, saying no goals could be achieved without them. “We are spending Rs40 lakh each year on various functionaries in Panchayats and there is no one (visible) except the gram sevaks,” union minister for rural development C. P. Joshi said while addresing a conference of state ministers on total sanitation here. “There...

School education boards across the country are planning to change their examination patterns to shift the focus from testing rote learning to assessing critical thinking. The Council of Boards of School Education (COBSE), an apex body that has all school boards as its members, today met in Ajmer and discussed the need for examination reforms. It decided to set up a committee to study the examination patterns followed by different boards...

The government is keen on forging a partnership with IIMs, IITs and other select institutes for augmenting professional resource support to its rural development programmes like NREGA. As part of efforts to evolve such a framework, the Ministry of Rural Development has invited representatives from various professional institutes including IIMs and IITs to participate in a workshop organised by it in Udaipur district of Rajasthan tomorrow, a ministry official said. Union Minister...

Stating that "nothing moves without money", the Supreme Court has expressed concern over growing corruption in government machinery, particularly in the Income Tax, Sales Tax and Excise Departments. "It is very unfortunate that there is no control over corruption in the country. There is rampant corruption particularly in the department of Income Tax, Sales Tax and Excise Department. Nothing moves without money," a Bench of Justices Markandeya Katju and T S...

curriculum and classroom teaching in Delhi University at the post-graduate level does not reflect adequate gender sensitivity, a gender audit conducted by the University's Women's Study and Development Centre has revealed. As per the post-graduate level gender audit report, though most of the Humanities and Social Sciences disciplines do have gender components in their syllabi, it is inadequate and teacher participation in workshops and seminars on gender issues is “rather low.” The...