-Economic and Political weekly Drawing on the research on basic education in West Bengal, this essay argues the case for a much criticised public education system, which needs to be reconsidered as regards its potential as a provider of quality education, even while addressing its many failings. The essay follows an approach, both critical and constructive, that underlines the collective onus of the public in realising the value of the public...
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Agriculture back in focus as growth estimate gets downgraded by banks like Morgan Stanley, Standard Chartered-Gayatri Nayak
-The Economic Times When the country was growing at more than 8 per cent for about a decade, services and manufacturing were the darlings of policy-makers, investors and talking heads. Agriculture, a segment that employs nearly half the hundred crore population of the country, was hardly mentioned even in passing. This year, thanks to a poor monsoon, suddenly the farmers are the centre of India's growth story, or the lack of...
More »Rural land may be classified to protect farm interest-Amiti Sen
-The Economic Times The rural development ministry has drawn up an ambitious plan to demarcate rural land depending on its use to ensure that fertile agricultural land is not used for industrial purpose. An inter-ministerial group that will include experts from the national remote sensing agency and the town and country planning organisation will work out a feasibility plan. "While passing by huge tracts of fields full of crops it is not unusual...
More »Loss figure not sacrosanct, we are open to debate: CAG-Pradeep Thakur
-The Times of India The estimate of Rs 1.86 lakh crore mentioned in the CAG report on Coalgate as "windfall gains" to private players who bagged coal mines allocated by the government without bidding is not sacrosanct, according to senior sources in the auditing agency. "We have never claimed that our estimate is not open to debate," sources said, adding that even the expression "windfall gains" was not that of the auditor....
More »MoEF Panel to Examine Western Ghats Report
-PTI Environment Ministry has constituted a high-level Working Group headed by eminent space scientist and Planning Commission member K Kasturirangan to examine the Western Ghats ecology expert panel report "in a holistic and multidisciplinary fashion". The nine-member Group will examine the Madhav Gadgil committee report released recently "in a holistic and multidisciplinary fashion keeping in view the comments received from the concerned state governments, central ministries, stakeholders", the Ministry said. The panel will...
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