Women from minority communities have outnumbered men by a long way — 417 to 338 — in winning the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad national fellowships for research, prompting the government to drop plans for reservation. Launched this year to help minority community students in higher education, this scheme offers integrated five-year fellowships in the form of financial assistance to pursue degrees such as MPhil and PhD. Girls from all communities except Buddhists...

KEY TRENDS   • Section 105 of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, which provides for excluding 13 Central legislation, including Land Acquisition (Mines) Act 1885, Atomic Energy Act, 1962, Railway Act 1989, National Highways Act 1956 and Metro Railways (Construction of Works) Act, 1978, from its purview, has been amended for payment of compensation with rigours $ • The amendments have now...

National Advisory Council Chairperson Sonia Gandhi today voiced concern over the high dropout rate and the absence of teachers in village schools. She noted that "one fourth of the teachers" in village schools remain absent and said the dropout rate, particularly amongst the minority and poor, was high. Speaking at a function after inaugurating 31 Navodaya Vidyalayas in various parts of the country, Gandhi said, "Everyone has a right to education and...

The Karnataka Unaided Schools Managements' Association (KUSMA) submitted its suggestions on Wednesday for amending the government's Right To Education ( RTE) draft. One suggestion highlighted by KUSMA is responsibility of the school to ensure 'out of school' or 'drop-out' children are given special training to integrate them into class. "Responsibility will burden educational institutions with a social obligation to implement for which they lack necessary resources," the release said. It...

Competing for praise and popularity is as common between Ministries as are turf wars. When officers from different Ministries get the rare opportunity to meet and discuss matters of shared concern, they behave like alert soldiers who are expected to fight for every inch of territory. I had an exposure to this phenomenon while working for a Planning Commission sub-committee on vocational education for skill development. Vocational and technical training...