Global population is going to cross the 7 billion mark by the year 2011. World population growth is almost entirely concentrated in the world's poorest countries. In a report prepared by the World Population Reference Bureau (www.prb.org), it has been found that within a span of 12 years, population of the world increased by 1 billion, which can be termed as a historic event. The report says that in the...

The language of rights has come into increasing use in India in public debate in the course of the last couple of decades. In this process, the word ‘right’ has acquired a more capacious and flexible meaning than is ordinarily given to it by the Constitution and the law. It is becoming more a matter of politics than of law, an instrument of political combat more than legal adjudication. If...

The minister for human resource development, Kapil Sibal, is a man in a hurry. His haste would be welcome, if the government’s proposals for higher education were not so scandalous. Amazingly, despite a few distinguished voices of dissent, there has been no national debate on the United Progressive Alliance government’s plans. Existing state and Central universities, likely to be worst affected by the broom of change, seem reconciled to their...

The United Nations’ Human Development Report of 2009 paints an idyllic picture of migrations. THE recently released United Nations Development Report-2009, titled “Overcoming Barriers: Human Mobility and Development”, presents a strong case for governments all over the world to encourage human mobility. Migrations, including those of low-skilled workforce, pay dividends all round, the report says. However, it does not quite attempt to seriously understand why people migrate, sometimes subjecting themselves...

* Secondary education is critical in breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty. * The number of secondary school students is expected to increase from 40 to 60 million over the next decade. * India needs to prepare now for this expansion and improve the quality of secondary education provided. In today’s global knowledge economy, education plays a vital role in determining a country’s economic growth and its people’s standards of living. Importantly,...