-PTI Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government has released three “innocent” Muslim youths lodged in jails on “false” terror charges and legal opinion has been sought for releasing 24 more, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh said on Sunday. “Three youths lodged on false cases have been released and talks were on to release 24 more,” he said. The former U.P. Chief Minister was addressing a Minority conference here. He said there are 11 Ministers of...

-The Hindu A proposed legislation to make the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) a statutory body, the draft of which is in circulation among the States for comments, has made Education Department officials of States apprehensive. They fear that it will result in hundreds of elite schools affiliated to the Board going completely beyond their monitoring mechanism. While the rules of the Right to Education (RTE) Act give an important role...

-Economic and Political Weekly An analysis of the study of Maharashtra prisons commissioned by the state's Minorities Commission finds an over-representation of Muslims in jails. A clear link is established between the criminal justice system and discrimination faced by this Minority. This study points to the need for State and non-State institutions to address the marginalisation faced by Muslims which leads to such discrimination. For more, please click here   ...

-The New York Times Blog On March 23, when students and prominent Indians meet at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania for the India Economic Forum, one person will be conspicuous by his absence: Narendra Modi. The chief minister of Gujarat was invited to join the conference via Skype to discuss Gujarat’s development model, but student organizers of the annual conference withdrew their invitation on Sunday after a few University...

-The Indian Express Even as Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s Union Budget for 2013-14 is being touted as a ‘balanced’ budget, members of the Congress president Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) have criticised it for not having done enough for the social sector. They feel the budget, which comes just ahead of the Lok Sabha elections due next year, falls short on delivering to the less advantaged groups and is relatively...