-The Indian Express As in the case of lawyers and doctors, a formal qualification must be prescribed for journalists Journalists comment on everything under the sun. But when someone comments on their profession, they let loose furious fusillades flaunting the slogan, "the freedom of the media in danger". Most condemn even the suggestion of a public debate on the issue of media regulation and responsibilities. No one can deny my credentials as a...

-New Indian Express A Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare has come down heavily on Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad’s ambitious plan to plug the huge shortfall in the rural healthcare sector with science graduates. Expressing surprise at the minister’s proposal, the panel headed by BSP MP Brijesh Pathak said, “Instead of providing doctors in villages, the Centre is coming up with a scheme to get...

-Live Mint HRD minister says government will push for the fulfilment of RTE's conditions even after deadline ends A week before the implementation deadline for its flagship Right to Education (RTE) Act expires, the government on Friday accepted that it had failed to achieve many of the targets of what it envisaged as a landmark measure. At least 13 states have written to the human resource development (HRD) ministry for an extension owing...

-The Business Standard The various grants under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan don't reach all schools - and not on time, either Educational spending is soaring. At the turn of the decade, new legislation has been enacted to make education a fundamental right. But India's elementary schoolchildren are just not learning. The country's elementary education budget has more than doubled since 2007-08, from Rs 68,853 crore to Rs 147,059 crore this fiscal, but the...

-Outlook 2,500 civilians, a majority of them marginalized tribals, were killed by the Naxals in last five years, the Home Ministry said. Since 2007, more than 2,500 civilians were killed by the CPI(Maoist) cadres and a majority of them are tribals who are branded as police informers before being brutally tortured and killed. According to the Home Ministry, tribals and economically underprivileged sections have been the biggest victims of the protracted "people's war"...