-Live Mint The International Monetary fund (IMF) has warned India against licensing corporate entities to step into the business of commercial banking, saying the risks associated with such a move potentially outweigh the benefits of creating more banks. IMF’s Financial System Stability Assessment Update said it would be prudent for India to first put in place and gain sufficient experience in implementing a comprehensive framework for the purpose before considering the entry...

-The Times of India AHMEDABAD: Even as the state government tom-toms its high enrollment rates in primary government schools in rural areas, it has done little to tackle teachers' deficit or to improve teaching quality in government schools. The poor quality of education - highlighted by the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2012, released on Friday - is being squarely blamed on the despairing and overburdened primary school teachers in...

-The Indian Express The dismal picture painted in Pratham’s latest Annual Status of Education Report must provoke policymakers to urgently assess and tackle the crisis in India’s primary school education. Pratham, an NGO, has done stellar work these past years in surveying the learning outcomes in schools countrywide. Its 2012 report details a rapid decline in students’ ability to keep up with the syllabus. It has found, for example, that only...

-The Hindustan Times The Congress-LED government in Kerala has decided to set up an exclusive fast-track court to deal with sexual atrocities against women and children. Announcing this here on Wednesday, chief minister Oommen Chandy said the court would be set up in Kochi immediately. “We have decided to sanction 18 new posts to set up a new additional and district court in Kochi. This court would deal only with cases...

-The Times of India The cry for speedy justice is going to be shriller in the next three decades as a conservative judicial estimate predicts that case pendency is going to register a five-fold increase to touch 15 crore but the judge strength will go up only four times to settle at 75,000. At present, nearly 19,000 judges, including 18,000 in trial courts, are dealing with a pendency of 3 crore cases,...