-IANS Those who cherish India's constitutional values will find Gujarat Chief Minister Narenda Modi's boast to build a state of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (India's first home minister and deputy prime minister) taller than the Statue of Liberty rather chilling. By prizing nationalism over individual freedom, Modi may have once again revealed his illiberal nature. People who dislike this aspect of him, Leftists mainly, give vent to their disapproval by dismissing Modi's development...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: In a worrying fallout of the rising diabetes and hypertension cases in urban India, a study across 12 cities found 17 out of every 100 people suffering from kidney disease. Of this, 6% had stage III kidney disease which necessitates medical attention and, in some cases, costly treatment like dialysis or transplant. The study used data from 13 hospitals, both private and government, across 12 cities...

-The Hindu     There is little demonstrated evidence of health benefits from access to ‘improved' stoves and clean fuels Around three billion of the world's poorest people have to burn firewood, animal dung, crop waste and coal to cook food and heat homes, using traditional stoves and open fires. The health-damaging smoke that results is estimated to cause some four million premature deaths each year, principally of women and children. Although many governments, multinational...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: No-detention provision in the Right to Education (RTE) Act is being touted as a big barrier towards quality education but a comprehensive report by the HRD ministry has revealed that 25 states already had no-detention policy even before the historical law came into force in 2009. It has also been revealed through analysis of District Information of System of Education data that learning ability in states...

-The Times of India MUMBAI: After an embarrassing show in 2009, India has backed out of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) slated for 2015. The programme is a global Evaluation process by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) secretariat that gauges where schoolchildren stand alongside their peers from other countries. This academic Olympics measures the performance of 15 year olds in reading, math and science. Indians were put...