-The Indian Express April 1 marked the third anniversary of the passage of the Right of Children for Free and Compulsory Education (RTE). There is little argument that the implementation of the RTE in these three years has been less than satisfactory. Deadlines for the enforcement of input norms - infrastructure, pupil-teacher ratios - have come and gone and potentially game-changing provisions, like 25 per cent reservation for economically weaker sections...

-The Times of India Reflecting the grievances of people in Jammu and Kashmir and north-eastern states, the Supreme Court on Tuesday said prolonged deployment of armed forces in disturbed areas was bound to result in extra-judicial killings. Dealing with the issues raised by public interest litigations alleging 1,528 extra-judicial killings in Manipur in the last three decades, a bench of Justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana P Desai said, "Manipur's woes must...

-The Hindu Pressing a button in the EVM will enable the voter know who he is voting for through a printing slip The Election Commission on Tuesday informed the Supreme Court that it would convene an all-party meeting in May after the Karnataka Assembly polls to decide on changes to be made in the electronic voting machine (EVM) for introducing the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) system. Under the system, a voter,...

-The Hindu   Rs. 4.7 cr. utilised last fiscal compared to Rs. 9 cr. in 2010-11 Bangalore: In what could be read as an MLA report card in a way, the performance of a large number of the State's Assembly constituencies, gauged under the national rural job guarantee schemes, progressively fell on many fronts during 2009-12. According to data pertaining to projects taken up under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) for...

-The Economic Times The recent patent rulings in India may get frequently challenged in international courts if the government yields to the European Union's demand of including matters related to intellectual property in the investors-state dispute mechanism in their proposed trade pact, health activist groups have warned. An investor-state dispute resolution mechanism typically allows foreign investors to sue countries for compensation if national laws, policies, court rulings of the country infringe upon...