-The Hindu EDI in District Information System for Education released Bangalore: The State stands fifth in the Composite Educational Development Index (EDI) contained in the recent District Information System for Education (DISE) 2012-2013 provisional report. Last year, the State had secured three ranks higherthan this. This year, the EDI is 0.661. EDI is calculated using a set of 24 indicators under four sub-groups such as access, infrastructure, teachers and outcome indicators. The data...

-The Telegraph Lucknow: The laptops are piling, the classrooms are empty. The Akhilesh Yadav-led Uttar Pradesh government today indicated it was ready to shift gears and focus on tackling alarming school dropout rates after being slammed over misplaced priorities and cash-guzzling populist schemes like free laptops. The issue was raised by a Congress legislator, Pramod Tiwari. BJP MLAs soon followed suit, drawing the government’s attention to the large number of dropouts at the...

-Outlook New York: Founder of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Arvind Kejriwal is among Foreign Policy magazine's leading Global Thinkers of 2013, a list of 100 people who have made "measurable difference" and are "pushing the boundaries of the possible". Activists Urvashi Butalia and Kavita Krishnan have also made it to the list that has been topped by US intelligence whistleblower Edward Snowden. Kejriwal, 45, who figures on the 32nd spot, is a...

-The Hindu We rarely ask the poor what poverty means to them and what changes in lifestyle would make them poverty-free The idea that poverty is determined, defined and measured by a group of people mostly unaffected by it is an intriguing one. Numerous definitions and studies globally tell us what poverty is, how it is measured - extreme and the moderate (there are categories!). Though surprisingly, none of these definitions has...

-The United Nations Despite significant progress in meeting international development goals for women's empowerment, gaps in key areas remain, which require a renewed effort from all partners to better integrate gender issues into the overall quest for sustainable development, a United Nations gender equality official said today. "It is ... essential to harness the synergies between gender equality, women's rights and empowerment with sustainable development in its three dimensions - economic, social,...