Political parties across the spectrum get into a tangle over an innocuous cartoon in a school textbook THE textbooks of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) are in the news again. This time, it is not history but political science textbooks that managed to get almost all Members of Parliament on their feet on an emotive issue and for reasons that defied logic. One day before the 60th...
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The Constitution, Cartoons and Controversies Contextualising the Debates by Kumkum Roy
A close reading of the Political Science textbook shows that it is complex, moves beyond pat answers, and treats the Constitution as a living document. It was produced in the light of the National Curriculum Framework 2005, which in itself was a major attempt to democratise education, and reverse the National Curriculum Framework 2000 which was casteist and sexist. Kumkum Roy (kumkumr@yahoo.com) is with the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru...
More »RTI success: Ministry of environment & forests uploads the damning Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel Report-Vinita Deshmukh
On 23rd May, Moneylife wrote on how a Kerala citizen was denied access to Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel Report (WGEEP). The Central Information Commission and the Delhi High Court ordered the ministry to make it public. It has now been uploaded on its site Just when one wondered whether the ministry of environment & forests (MoEF) would turn to the Supreme Court after the Delhi High Court on 17th May,...
More »An RTI test looms for a regulator-Anuja & Remya Nair
Delhi high court to hear central bank challenge to CIC order seeking information on defaults by top industrialists The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has challenged an order by the Central Information Commission (CIC) asking the central bank to disclose names of the top 100 industrialists who have defaulted on loan repayments. In a writ petition to the Delhi high court, which is scheduled to be heard on 29 May, the central...
More »Amended RTI rules by Maharashtra govt creates confusion-Vinita Deshmukh
Should the applicant and the Public Information Officer follow the amended rules of the state government or abide by the National RTI Act? There’s a lot of conflict, say experts The Maharashtra government’s amended RTI (Right to Information) rules are in straight conflict with that of the national RTI Act. This has led to a cloud of confusion amongst RTI applicants and Public Information Officers (PIOs), say RTI experts. One wonders...
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