-The Business Standard Kolkata: Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee, Ford Foundation International professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has slammed the government's Right To Education (RTE) programme. This, he said, was only a step towards ensuring a means of livelihood for teachers. Banerjee said the programme, implemented in 2009, lacked sense. He said he wasn't hopeful about the outcome of the initiative. "It is simply for the teachers, by the teachers,...

Groups from across India gathered in Delhi recently to assess the Forest Rights Act’s journey since 2006. The law is often dubbed as ‘landmark’ because it ended the age-old illegality surrounding communities living in forest areas by entitling them to individual and community land title. It also went beyond the colonial paradigms of the forest bureaucracy to recognise community efforts at protecting and preserving forests. Numerous groups and individuals working...

-Outlook The US is going ahead with its resolution against Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva as the Rajapaksha government has failed to fulfill its international obligations, which it promised after the fall of the LTTE, the Obama Administration said today. Without naming any one, State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland told reporters at her daily news conference that the US is working with a lot of governments who...

-The Indian Express Thirty-four years after the death of 20-year-old Kanchanbala from 100 per cent burn injuries, and 27 years after her case led to changes in the dowry law, the Delhi High Court has upheld the conviction of her husband for abetment to suicide. In a verdict on the eve of Women's Day earlier this month, the court linked it to his demand for a scooter made two days before Kanchanbala's...

-National Alliance of People’s Movements A historic mobilization of more than 1 lakh farmers, farm workers and agrarian masses belonging to a wide variety of social movements from across India descended upon New Delhi today. Protestors at the 'Kisan Khet Mazdoor Mahapanchayat'  came to show their collective commitment towards getting the government’s attention to reverse the grave agrarian crisis caused by liberalization reforms supporting foreign investors, corporations; reforms that support elite...