-The Times of India   NEW DELHI: When a new HRD minister takes over next week, he will be virtually presiding over a mess left behind by the previous government. In the first few weeks as the debris is cleared, the new minister will discover the two contrasting worlds of school and higher education. Despite the problems and handicap the Right to Education faces, the last five years have seen the historic...

-The Hindu   So far, the electoral promises of allocation of six per cent of GDP to education have remained as pious wishes Election manifestoes over decades have rhetorically spoken of six per cent of GDP or more to education and this election has been no exception; the actual spending on education is only around three per cent. Not surprisingly, school infrastructure and teaching personnel are inadequate and of poor quality while the dropout...

-The Indian Express   India's rentier capitalism is an inset in the big picture drawn by Thomas Piketty   French economist Thomas Piketty has written a scholarly tome with the humdrum title, Capital in the 21st Century. The book has become an overnight sensation because Piketty documents an inherent tendency for ever-increasing inequality of income and wealth in capitalist economic systems. It is not an accident, he says, that many will be left behind...

-The Times of India BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh may clock fastest growth rate in the country, but it still hugs the lowest rung in national rankings when it comes to primary education. This time though, the rankings are by Union HRD ministry and not a private foundation. Almost half of students of Class III in the state cannot read and understand simple text while one third cannot do addition and subtraction. The...

-The Times of India   Is wealth trickling up instead of down? Yes, says rockstar economist Thomas Piketty whose new book proposing a wealth tax on the super rich has sparked off a firestorm. Excerpts from an exclusive interview... His book Capital in the Twenty-First Century has put the spotlight on Thomas Piketty, transforming the Paris School of Economics professor to global superstar. In these troubled times, he highlights a troubling issue:...