The government has proposed that the offence of rape be made "gender neutral" by amending the law so that sexual assault on men can also be proceeded against under the same statute. It also plans to make specific laws on stalking and acid attacks on women. The change in the rape law is being drafted by the ministry of women and child development (WCD) as part of the criminal law (amendment)...

-PTI The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) will put up a complaint and suggestion box at its pharmacy on the hospital campus to check discrepancies in the distribution of medicines at less than half the price. The 24-hour pharmacy is expected to provide all medicines and surgical consumables prescribed by doctors to outpatients at a 56 per cent discount on the minimum retail price. “The pharmacist has been instructed to provide...

Third report in three months to highlight lack of Quality education in India; poses risk to knowledge hub hopes Nearly two years after the Right to Education (RTE) Act was introduced with the promise of providing free and compulsory education to all primary school children, the learning outcome in the country has actually deteriorated in terms of Quality. In yet another wake-up call for policymakers, the 2011 Annual Status of Education Report...

-The Telegraph   The Quality of elementary education is falling in rural schools almost two years after education was made a fundamental right in April 2010. The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2011, a survey of government and private schools in rural areas conducted by the NGO Pratham, shows a decline in schoolchildren’s “learning outcome levels” compared with the previous year, whether in reading or arithmetic skills.  However, students of private schools have...

-Live Mint Private school enrolment in the 6-14 age group has gone up to 25.6% in 2011 from 18.7% in 2006 If one wants to understand the dismal state of school education in India, there is no better place to look than the pages of the Annual Status of Education Report 2011 (ASER). Forget the detailed statistics, just look at the maps displaying basic school education facts. They reinforce only one fact:...