-The Times of India   With the Supreme Court bringing all recognized schools under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, the government will have to boost spending on its flagship programme to meet the estimated Rs 2.3 lakh crore needed to fund the initiative over 2010-2014.  RTE has been plagued with fund shortfalls with budgetary provision in the last two years being only half of what was estimated. The HRD ministry received Rs...

HETA, India – At the entrance to this village in India’s eastern state of Jharkhand, a large pond glistened under the bright autumn sun. Yellow and blue lilies surrounded it. A tailor was stitching clothes outside his shop while a few boys nearby were playing carrom on the lid of a rusted oil barrel. It was a tranquil, rustic setting – a candidate for a landscape painting, it seemed. But it...

Each time 25 year old Salma takes her one year old son Zubair to the Batla Clinic (a private clinic in Delhi) for a shot of the DPT, the cost of transportation and the vaccine adds up to approximately Rs.500.   When it is time for Zubair to take the next immunization dose, Salma may find that the expenses have entirely spiraled out of her reach. New vaccines and expensive brands of baby...

The agitation against the Kudankulam nuclear power plant can be seen as a case of activism gone berserk. The high-octane drama against the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) in Tamil Nadu has wound down. The seven-month-long agitation led by the People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) at Idinthakarai village in Tirunelveli district, demanding the closure of the ready-to-be commissioned project, ended on March 27 when S.P. Udayakumar, PMANE convener, called off...

 It was UPA 1's winning mantra. But the Rs 33,000 crore a year rural job guarantee scheme may be floundering with the government admitting the flagship programme suffers from delayed payments, poor awareness, lack of durable assets, faulty job cards and muster rolls.  The finance ministry has echoed some of the major criticisms of the Mahatma GandhiNational Rural Employment Guarantee Actlisting endemic "lack of awareness about rights and entitlements" and inability...