As it stands, the Right to Education Act has several flaws that will prevent its efficacious implementation. Several amendments are called for. Something that cannot work, will not work. This is a tautology applicable to the Right to Education (RTE) Act, which cannot meet the objectives for which it was enacted. There are several reasons for this. First, the Act does not rule out educational institutions set up for profit (Section 2.n.(iv))....

The official line is simple. Since we cannot afford to feed all the hungry, there must only be as many hungry as we can afford to feed. There was irony in the timing of the petrol price decontrol order. The decision, which also covered major hikes in diesel and kerosene prices, and affects hundreds of millions of people, came even as Manmohan Singh advised world leaders in Toronto on the need...

Investments in agriculture in developing countries can be structured in a way that they become an alternative to large-scale land acquisitions to ensure that small-scale farmers do not lose their land rights, according to the findings of a United Nations-backed study released today. International initiatives on agricultural investments should go beyond trying to minimize the negative impacts of large-scale land acquisitions and, instead, promote investment models that improve opportunities for...

Drought impacted agricultural production but not farm incomes.  The year 2009-10 was supposedly a bad year for Indian agriculture, given the worst ever monsoon since 1972. This is partly reflected in the 0.2 per cent growth registered by the farm sector (inclusive of forestry and fishing) in real terms, as per the Central Statistical Organisation's latest revised estimates of gross domestic product (GDP) for last fiscal. The virtual stagnation in agricultural output...

Uttarakhand is likely to pass the much-awaited Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act, setting the stage for private companies like RIL and ITC to get into contract farming in the state and set up private mandis. Uttarakhand agriculture minister, Trivendra Singh Rawat on Friday said chief minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has agreed to give the final nod to the proposal at the next Cabinet meeting. The move follows the green...