Ministries of environment and forests and tribal affairs have jointly set up a 10-member committee to study and assess the impact of Forest Rights Act on sustainable management of forest resources. Given the lead role played by the environment ministry in this committee, concerns have been flagged off by civil society organisations about the real intent and legality of the committee. The committee headed by former director-general of Forest Survey...

42,000 teachers have not been paid salaries for five to 10 months Even as the State Government attempts to stave off uncomfortable questions about its financial health, claims are surfacing that thousands of government and aided high school teachers have not been paid their salaries for over five months. In some cases, teachers of aided high schools have not been paid for nearly a year. A top official attributed part...

India figures among the four countries that has seen a marked increase in systematic attacks on schools, students and teachers between 2006 and 2009, a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) report has said. The other three countries were such attacks have increased are Afghanistan, Pakistan and Thailand. The report also finds that children are abducted to fights with arrows and guns in India. The UN cites the...

On January 2, 2010, three masked men barged into Pinki’s home in Tapodana village, Ranchi district and killed her parents on the charges of practicing witchcraft. Pinki, 14, and her younger brother are now in hiding because she too has been named as a dayan or witch. Sushila Devi, 45, tries to hide the injury on her head with her sari pallu as she describes how she and four other...

I have been an advisor to The Energy and Resources Institute or Teri, a distinguished visiting fellow there since 1996, except when I was the chairman of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission, the director-general of the National Council of Applied Economic Research, the chairman of the Institute for Social and Economic Change and on boards of management and economic research institutions. This disclaimer is intended to forestall motives being ascribed...