-DNA A day after private schools in the state expressed their helplessness in implementing the Right to Education (RTE) Act from the current academic year, a determined state government on Wednesday directed private unaided schools to announce only 75% of the admission list and keep 25% of the seats aside to enable admission of students belonging to economically weaker sections. But here’s the worrying bit in the story. Most private schools have...

Organising a food festival can hardly be described as an act promoting hatred between students or communities. The controversy over the Beef Festival recently organised on the campus of Osmania University in Hyderabad and the threat of professors being investigated by the police for “instigating” the organisers needs to be understood in the context of the larger politics of food and policing of food practices. Across the country, different communities in different...

-PTI Mayo College Ajmer, among the most reputable schools in the country, has said the 25 per cent quota for students from underprivileged families does not apply to it as it is a boarding school. Under the Right to Education Act, all schools barring unaided minority institutions have to reserve 25 per seats for students from the weaker sections. However, there is no clarity yet on boarding schools. Appearing for the Mayo College...

-The Hindu Both documents extensively discuss need for competitive bidding for scarce natural resources The fate of the Ashok Chawla Committee report on the allocation of natural resources suggests a wider government unwillingness to accept competitive bidding, auctions and market-linked pricing for scarce, natural resources lies at the heart of its 2G review petition. The Committee was set up on January 31, 2011, at the peak of the 2G scam expose and just...

-The Economic Times It was just a ride in a cycle rickshaw that moved an Assam based veterinary surgeon, Dr Pradip Kumar Sarmah and got him thinking into setting up the concept of 'Rickshaw Bank'. The concept today has changed the lives of more than 10000 rickshaw pullers in six states in India. Dr Pradip Kumar Sarmah (47), the innovator of this concept, explained that majority of the rickshaw pullers drive rented...