For the first time in Jharkhand, World Bank officials from Washington DC will hold daylong Deliberations with a select group of academics, bureaucrats and stakeholders here to thrash out a roadmap for improving the standard of higher education in the state. “The quality of higher education is not up to the mark at most educational institutions. There are many challenges and opportunities in the sector in a country where there is...

-The Hindu   She will make yet another attempt before monsoon session A meeting convened by Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar here on Wednesday failed to break the deadlock over the Women's Reservation Bill. The Bill to set aside 33 per cent of the seats in Parliament and State legislatures for women was passed by the Rajya Sabha in March last year, but has been held up in the Lok Sabha amid stiff...

Talks fail; Hazare threatens fast from August 16 The Joint Drafting Committee on the Lokpal Bill ended its Deliberations on Tuesday without a common text, and the government has decided to go ahead with its plan of consulting political parties and Chief Ministers on the two different versions before getting the Cabinet to clear a final draft. Expressing “deep disappointment” at what it said was the government's watered down version of a...

Only one contentious issue came up for discussion at Monday's meeting between the government representatives and civil society members of the Joint Drafting Committee on the Lokpal Bill. It was the selection and removal of Lokpal members. The two sides differed on both counts. The government preferred a committee comprising the Prime Minister, the Lok Sabha Speaker, the leaders of both Houses, Leaders of the Opposition of both Houses, the Home...

Seven meetings and a stalemate. What now for the Lokpal Bill? It’s War Out There Seven meetings on, government and civil society reps drafting the Lokpal bill are split on four key issues Ambit     * Civil society: PM and Supreme and High Court judges should be brought under Lokpal’s purview     * Government: This is constitutionally untenable; PM should get immunity or should be investigated with adequate safeguards Scope     * Civil society: MPs can...