-The Hindu The Odisha government has made the right announcements to improve the plight of migrant workers, but a lot more needs to be done In December 2013, a labourer chopped off the palms of two migrant workers from western Odisha. He had paid them an advance for working in the brick kilns of Hyderabad and did not take kindly to their arguing with him about the payment and place of work....

-The New Indian Express   SAMBALPUR: Shortage of Urea fertilizer has adversely affected farming activities in Western Odisha districts and left farmers in a lurch. While well-off farmers are purchasing it at a premium from open market, the small and marginal ones are sitting with their fingers crossed waiting for the Agriculture Department to come to their aid. Urea has the highest nitrogen content of all solid nitrogenous fertilizers. It has nitrogen...

-The Indian Express Mumbai: Shweta Katti, who grew up in Mumbai's red light district of Kamathipura, had her first breakthrough when she made it to the Bard College in New York last year. Now, there is another reason for the 19-year-old to celebrate: She has been selected by the United Nations Special Envoy for Education for the Youth Courage Award, given to girls from around the world for showing exemplary courage...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: As part of its ambitious 'Namami Gange' programme, the government plans to free all villages along the banks of the river from open defecation by 2022 and extend incentives to states to expand sewerage infrastructure in all 118 urban habitations along the river. Both the schemes will cost the government around Rs 52,700 crore. While Rs 51,000 crore has been earmarked for expanding the sewerage infrastructure,...

-Economic and Political Weekly   Through a two-way process comprising text analysis of the policy framework of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan programme and analysis of empirical data collected through interaction with policy implementers, teachers, students, experts, etc, this article puts forth the argument that urban education system has failed partly because of the inability of the implementers to plan, manage and facilitate the programme. Monika Banerjee (banerjie77@gmail.com) is with the Zakir Husain Centre...