-PTI GORAKHPUR, UP: With the death of nine children on Thursday, a total of 15 kids have succumbed to encephalitis during the past three days here. With this, the toll in the region this year due to the disease has risen to 271, health officials said. While six children died on Tuesday, nine others succumbed today, they said, adding that the victims belonged to Gorakhpur and its adjoining districts of Kushinagar, Siddharthanagar and...

-The Hindu     RTE proponent's condition deteriorated last week; he died at a Delhi hospital on Thursday Educationist Vinod Raina, who died of cancer here on Thursday, was one of the key architects of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009. He was member of the expert group on ‘Monitoring of Child Rights in Education' set up by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights and a sitting...

-The Hindustan Times Investors say the new land acquisition bill approved by Parliament this week has made things more difficult. Pro-farm civil-society advocates say it hasn't gone far enough to protect farmer interests. If both sides are unhappy, an inside joke goes, it must be a pretty good legislation that has struck the right balance. The debate over land acquisition, however, is no laughing matter. In a country where half the people live...

-The Hindu Jagdish Bhagwati's attacks on Amartya Sen are based on a series of misattributions and obscure the real issues on which the two economists differ Rich and lively public debates are the raison d'être of any democracy. But the recent attacks by Professor Jagdish Bhagwati on Dr. Amartya Sen confound the real issues on which Sen and Bhagwati differ. Bhagwati tries to position himself as a proponent of growth that would benefit...

-Down to Earth Open defecation along the Gandak in Uttar Pradesh causes the disease in Bihar, says study Bihar all set to check encephalitis Open defecation along the Gandak in Uttar Pradesh causes the disease in Bihar, says study TIRED of failures by researchers to identify the virus that causes acute encephalitis syndrome (AES), the Bihar government, along with Unicef and the Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences (RMRI), has sent...