Like many board games that were developed in India, of which chess is perhaps the most important and famous, the game of “snakes and ladders” too emerged in this country a long time ago. With its balancing of snakes that pull you down and ladders that take you up, this game has been used again and again as a metaphor for life, telling us about our fortunes and misfortunes, and...

-DNA   Can’t think of ways to make schooling a stress-free affair? Take the cue from the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS). It has come up with a unique method of evaluation under which students can appear for their summative assessments (equivalent to semester examinations) multiple number of times, giving them ample opportunities to better their score with each attempt. KVS officials said they are going to pilot a new form of learning exercises,...

-The Telegraph A senior IAS officer was arrested today for alleged involvement in the Emaar MGF scandal dating back to Y.S.R. Reddy’s tenure as Andhra chief minister. B.P. Acharya, now principal secretary in the home department, is the second senior IAS officer based in the state to be held on corruption charges in recent months. Y. Srilakshmi was held in an illegal mining case involving former Karnataka minister G. Janardhana Reddy. Acharya was managing...

On a wall on Station Road, among posters of Khoonkar Darinde and The Dirty Picture, Amitabh Bachchan looks out of a row of yellow-and-red posters and says, “Do boond har baar.” Here in Moradabad, the town in western Uttar Pradesh that till recently exported, besides its intricate brassware, strains of the deadly polio virus, the posters have been around for long. The writing on the wall was clear: this was...

-DD News   In a damning action, government has barred former ISRO chief G Madhavan Nair and three eminent space scientists from any re-employment for their alleged role in the controversial allocation of scarce S-band space segment to private firm Devas. The action, probably the first of its kind against a former Secretary-level technocrat and other retired officials, follows a high-level inquiry into the controversial deal under which Antrix was to lease out...