Experts agree that the economic and environmental costs of interlinking India's rivers far outweigh its projected benefits. Some people believe it is the one-stop solution to prevent floods and droughts, reduce water scarcity, raise irrigation potential and increase foodgrain production in the country. But others say it is just another grandiose scheme involving huge costs and leading to long-term ecological consequences. The contentious idea of interlinking India's rivers has come...

Students graduating in law may have to do a stint of compulsory practical training in courts, like the internship that medical graduates have to undergo. Law teachers this newspaper spoke to agreed that such a period of apprenticeship would help new law graduates but argued that it should be kept optional. The original proposal to make legal internship a compulsory part of the five-year LLB course had come from the Chief Justice...

On Saturday last, as the government was highlighting with much fanfare the achievements under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 in the past two years, the RTE Division of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) — entrusted with the responsibility of monitoring the implementation of the Act — was virtually winding up. It all happened as the term of Kiran Bhatty, the...

Two years after the Centre notified the Right of the Children to Free and Compulsory Act, 2009, which guarantees free education to children aged 6-14 years, Karnataka and Goa are yet to notify the rules. “Last year this time, only 15 States notified the RTE rules. Today, this number has increased to 21. The Ministry will continue to follow up with these States as notification would entitle them to funds from...

-The Economic Times As the Right to Education completed two years, human resource development minister Kapil Sibal said that it was now the responsibility of state governments to deliver on the promise of universal elementary education.  "Whatever provisions that have been made in RTE these have to be implemented. Plans for it are completely ready so that they can be implemented after two years. I believe that this is a great accomplishment...