The University Grants Commission has set up four committees to review educational development schemes for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, minorities and women, the relook prompted by statistics that show the measures haven’t been all that effective. While the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education for all categories in 2007-08 was 13.58, the corresponding percentage for SCs was 11.62 and for STs 9.86 per cent, according to HRD ministry figures for...

The battle against Posco appeared to be reaching a crucial stage as around 2,000 protectors today continued to block the entry of police and officials into Dhinkia and Gobindapur even as an Opposition delegation visited the area to lend support to the people’s movement. As the protesters refused to budge, the officials were forced to return empty-handed after a five-hour-long wait. The movement against the 12-million-tonne Posco steel project got a big...

Obituaries for the PDS system are a bit premature, based as they are on outdated data and presumptions. Despite flaws like pilfering and leakages, the system shows signs of improvement in certain states. States have demonstrated the political will to invest in the PDS, by putting in state resources to make it work. Cash transfers (CTs) are increasingly advocated as an alternative to the Public Distribution System (PDS). The proponents of...

As the Lokpal Bill gets mired in a tortuous birthing, the debate shifts to who exactly has the right to pass a law Why Politicians Hate Civil Society     * Unelected activists stealing Parliament’s right to make laws, undercutting role of parliamentarians     * Demands like an all-powerful Lokpal directly impact political-bureaucratic class and the status quo     * Rigid deadlines, fasts unto death to press home issues are akin to holding government...

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee faced a major embarrassment on Friday as she was forced to put on hold an ordinance restoring land in Singur to farmers. The state government on Friday instead proposed to table a Bill in the legislative assembly on Tuesday so that the land in Singur-currently the site of an abandoned Tata Motors factory-can eventually be given back to farmers. "The ordinance that was promulgated on...