-PTI   The West Bengal government today submitted before the Calcutta high court that it was not against the Tatas but in favour of farmers and employment generation. Contesting the Tata Motors Ltd prayer that the Singur Rehabilitation and Development Act 2011 be declared unconstitutional, senior counsel for the government Saktinath Mukherjee submitted before Justice Saumitra Pal that the government was answerable to the people as 1000 acres of fertile land was...

-PTI   Faced with teacher shortage and other infrastructural hurdles, the Government has said the ambitious Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act will take at least three more years to show results. "It (RTE Act) is going to take three years at least. This is not something that is going to bear fruit tomorrow," HRD Minister Kapil Sibal told PTI. Many hurdles have to be overcome for effective implementation...

The episodes of violence in land acquisition by the government, as witnessed recently in Bhatta-Parsaul in Uttar Pradesh and in other states earlier, occur because patterns of violence are inbuilt into the process. Despite a bill pending in Parliament since 2007, there has been little effort by political parties to evolve a consensus on acquisition of agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes. The law as at present and also the provisions...

With the Right of all Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act mandating a 30:1 teacher pupil ratio and laying down minimum qualifications for teachers, state governments have expressed concerns about the lack of infrastructure to provide the required training. Only diploma-holders in elementary education are allowed to teach students from Class I to V and there is a shortage of teachers in this category. As per the HRD Ministry, of the...

-Reuters   India's crucial monsoon rains have advanced to remaining regions of cane-growing west Uttar Pradesh and some parts of pulses-growing Rajasthan ahead of schedule, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said in a statement. The monsoon has also reached remaining parts of wheat-growing Punjab and Haryana, the weather office said. India, one of the world's largest producers and consumers of crops such as rice, sugar and corn, relies heavily on the June to September...