-The Hindu   Neha Khator narrates the story of an NGO that transformed a backward village into a bustling city, with funds, of course, but also by fostering a sense of duty in its residents. Vimla Kanwar, a 70-year-old widow, had a problem. After her husband, a handloom yarn spinner, died of cancer, the officials at the Khadi Gram Udyog took away his charkha. Concerned about finding a means of survival at her...

-The Indian Express A team of physicists from IIT-Delhi is conducting a five-day workshop to teach the subject to madrasa instructors in Taleemabad, near Jamia Hamdard. Speaking to a class of 30 madrasa instructors-turned-students, Vipin Tripathi, Dr Sanat Mohanty and Dr Pawan Kumar began their workshop by talking about bridges. The earnest maulanas, from Delhi and Faridabad, participate enthusiastically, as they are asked to figure out why a corrugated sheet makes...

-The Telegraph A panel of experts has watered down a proposal by the UPA government to set up five minority universities, citing legal hurdles. The committee, headed by Indian Council of Social Science Research chairman Sukhadeo Thorat, has suggested that the institutions be set up as central universities with their focus on minorities, instead of minority institutions as proposed. The committee submitted its report to the minority affairs ministry last month, a senior...

-The Hindu Students in government schools in Assam study only for two-and-a-half hours every day at the primary level compared to five-and-a-half to six-and-a-half hours in the rest of the country, an official study has shown. Similarly, the total number of working days in primary schools each year is 180 in Nagaland and Manipur and a maximum of 253 in Bihar and Jharkhand with lower than average literacy rates. But in most...

-PTI Pingali has been appointed director of the Tata-Cornell Initiative in Agriculture and Nutrition Washington: Former World Bank economist Prabhu Pingali has been appointed by the Cornell University to lead effort to help reduce poverty and malnutrition in India, a project established through a USD 25 million endowment from the Tata Trusts. Pingali has been appointed director of the Tata-Cornell Initiative in Agriculture and Nutrition (TACO-AN), a long-term project established through a...