Schools affiliated to international boards are on a collision course with the government over implementing the Right To Education (RTE) Act, which requires them to reserve 25 per cent of their seats for poor students. The schools, which are affiliated to boards such as the International Baccalaureate (IB) and Cambridge International Examinations (CIE), are governed by the rules of their own boards. The government is yet to frame any regulations to...

Karnataka Lokayukta Justice N. Santosh Hegde has expressed his reservations over activist Anna Hazare's decision to fast until the Union government passes the Jan Lokpal Bill (Citizens' ombudsman Bill). Mr. Hegde, who, along with Mr. Hazare and others, helped draft the Bill, said: “I wish he [Hazare] had waited for some time.” He was speaking to The Hindu on Tuesday after returning from New Delhi, where he participated in a consultation called...

The Manmohan Singh government and the Congress leadership appear to have overcome initial jitters and hardened their stand on the campaign launched by social activists led by Anna Hazare who began a “fast-unto-death” at Delhi’s agitation hub Jantar Mantar this morning. The Congress suspects that the entire campaign has been hijacked by the RSS which, the party feels, is looking for ways to destabilise the government after some Sangh leaders were...

From the Prime Minister down, WikiLeaks has exposed the rotten state of the world's largest democracy for all to see. Food prices become intolerable for the poor. Protests against corruption paralyse Parliament. Then a series of AMerican diplomatic cables released by the WikiLeaks exposes a brazenly mendacious and venal ruling class; the head of government adored by foreign business people and journalists loses his moral authority, turning into a lame duck. This...

“National organisations of health research should come together to provide effective stewardship” Proportion of published papers increased from 0·4 % in 1988 to 1·8 % in 2008 Only 1/4 public health research reports rated as being of adequate quality Expressing concern over the scarcity of research on the routine health-information system in both reports and published papers, which is crucial to track the response of the health system to the health needs of...