The judgment last week by the Supreme Court, making it mandatory for the government, local authorities and private schools to reserve 25% of their seats for the economically weaker sections, is one more step in making the right to education a reality for Indian children. The road, however, is long and the journey arduous, as there are still millions who face barriers in accessing education. The Right of Children to Free...

-The Telegraph   The Congress leadership today took care not to rub Mamata Banerjee the wrong way despite its apparent unease over a cartoon episode that led to the arrest of a professor in Bengal. There were instructions from the top to exercise restraint and spokespersons were told to avoid making any direct comment. At the official briefing, party spokesperson Manish Tiwari repeatedly said he was not aware of the details and making...

Amit Kumar, an Indian journalist based in the eastern state of Bihar, received a tip in 2009 from a village called Manan Bigha just two kilometers away from his home. There was a man there dying from starvation, he was told. The situation was urgent. Mr. Kumar rushed off to visit the man, Kangresh Manjhi, and exhaustively documented his story. He learned how Mr. Manjhi, a lower-caste, landless laborer, was forced...

An across-the-board increase in petrol, diesel and cooking gas prices is likely by mid-May, immediately after the Budget is passed in Parliament.  "There is a lot of pressure on the government from oil companies to increase fuel prices but they been informally told to hold on till the Budget is passed in Parliament," a senior government official told HT. "There may be one small increase in petrol price that is likely to...

Statistics can abet illusions, unless properly understood and used. The debates on poverty line and budget deficits reflect a lack of understanding of the meaning and purpose of these measures. India has been recently witness to furious debates on measures of poverty and budget deficits. Any measure can be used only for the purpose it is designed for. The debates in the present cases were furious, because preconceptions and emotions were...