-PTI CAG today slammed the HRD Ministry for the shortcomings in the Aakash tablet project, raising questions over "arbitrary" selection of IIT, Rajasthan to launch the scheme without carrying out an assessment of its capacity to undertake the work. In its report tabled in Parliament, the government auditor observed that IITR had told the Ministry that around 90 per cent of the tablets supplied by Datawind between August and November 2011 were...

-The Hindu THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala government proposes to introduce a pension scheme for workers registered under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREG) and having worked under the MGNREG scheme for at least 100 days a year. Minister for Rural Development and Culture K.C. Joseph told the media that the pension scheme would be implemented with contributions from State and Central governments and the workers. This is the first pension scheme...

-The Hindu     There is no linkage between decentralisation of school governance and quality inclusive education, reveals a recent study Delhi: Inequity and very low per capita expenditure on teachers are the major reasons behind the crisis faced by school education currently, two recently released study reports have identified. They have further pointed out that it is the combination of a good head teacher and a good team of teachers that is the...

-Frontline The midday meal scheme is a grand idea in a flawed school system. "THEY played here, studied here and got buried here!" (Yahin khela, yahin padha aur yahin ho gaya dafan). With these emphatic words, grieving parents buried the bodies of two children within the compound of the Dharmasati Gandaman Primary School of Masharakh block in Saran district of Bihar. This sentiment was expressed with great dignity even in the...

-The Hindu There is absolutely no methodological relationship between the Tendulkar poverty line and the one dollar poverty line. Mihir Shah has defended the poverty line recommended by the Suresh Tendulkar Committee in 2009 in his article in The Hindu (editorial page, "Understanding the Poverty Line", August 5, 2013). Mr. Shah makes two claims. First, he argues that "Tendulkar [...] computed poverty lines for 2004-05 at a level that was equivalent, in...