RTE marks a welcome return to common schooling; the objections lack substance. It's the strangest of debates. Private schools are up in arms against the Supreme Court order upholding the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE), 2009. What are their objections? First, non-minority private unaided schools feel they have got a raw deal. They will have to provide free education to 25 per cent of their students, admitted from economically...

The Union government has decided to intensify its operations against the CPI (Maoist) by launching the third and fourth phase of its multi-winged, coordinated stratagem to squeeze the expanse of what the Naxalites now refer to as the ‘ring of fire' (part of the red corridor). However, several ministries are not extending any cooperation. Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh raised the issue in his letter to Prime Minister Manmohan...

Police investigation of Sanal Edamaraku for debunking a “miracle” at a church is a crime against the Constitution. Early in March, little drops of water began to drip from the feet of the statue of Jesus nailed to the cross on the church of Our Lady of Velankanni, down on to Mumbai's unlovely Irla Road. Hundreds began to flock to the church to collect the holy water in little plastic bottles,...

-The Economic Times Springing a surprise, Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa on Saturday said the Kudankulam nuclear power project is all set to go on stream within 10 days. "Within 10 days we will start the project," an optimistic Jayalalithaa said after participating in the chief ministers' conference in New Delhi. Senior officials at the Nuclear Power Corporation LIMited, however, did not share the CM's enthusiasm about the short deadline for...

Cutting across party lines, Rajya Sabha members on Thursday sought a constitutional amendment to provide for promotion quota in jobs for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the wake of the Supreme Court quashing the Uttar Pradesh government's decision in the matter. Replying to a short duration discussion, Minister of State for Personnel V. Narayanasamy said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was seized of the issue and the government was willing to...