-The Hindu Aim of the exercise is to map damage due to closure of 17,000 govt. schools. Eight months after the BJP government closed down 17,000 government schools in Rajasthan, dramatically pushing up the dropout rate largely among marginal communities, the Congress has decided to undertake a survey, starting in Jaipur's Amber block, to map the damage. Once the audit is over, a campaign to force the State government to reopen the closed...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Community radio stations are fuming at what they see as a double whammy from the government: a diktat to publicise its flagship social schemes and an attempt to monitor the content being aired. The community radio stations have been "advised" to base their programmes around Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pet schemes such as the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao and Jan Dhan Yojana, Union information and...

-Frontline   The BJP-led NDA government has, in the two Budgets it has presented so far, revealed itself to be very different from the pro-farmer image that its leading election campaigner and now Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, projected. THE Bharatiya Janata Party's manifesto for the 2014 Lok Sabha election states: "Agriculture is the engine of India's economic growth and the largest employer, and BJP commits highest priority to agriculture growth, increases in...

-Frontline Interview with Congress leader Jairam Ramesh by TK Rajalakshmi THE Congress has been firm in its opposition to the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill, 2015. The Ministry for Rural Development under Jairam Ramesh in the previous UPA government drafted the 2013 Land Acquisition Bill, which the NDA government now seeks to amend. Excerpts from an interview with Jairam Ramesh: * Is your party...

-The Indian Express Chandigarh: Of the total 13,894 government school students who had appeared for class IX exam this year, 3,796 of them have failed in the final exams held in March. As these students could not qualify the 25% criteria to get promotion to the next class, they have been asked to re-appear in another exam, likely to be held soon. In case they flunk even this exam, they will...