On Friday, the Prime Minister launched the Shiksha Ka Haq Abhiyan — a yearlong nationwide campaign for promoting the Right to Education (RTE). As these efforts gain ground, the country faces one important choice: should elementary education be delivered through the current model, which focuses on the expansion of schooling through a top-down, centralised delivery system? Or should we use the RTE as an opportunity to fundamentally alter the current...

The number of backward caste members eligible for reservation benefits may see a quantum jump, with the Centre considering a drastic relaxation of the definition of "creamy layer" to enable those with an annual income of Rs 12 lakh in metros qualify for quota benefits. The eligibility level is proposed to be raised to Rs 9 lakh in non-metro cities, marking a two-fold hike from the existing ceiling of Rs 4.5...

Despite industry having preference from government trained manpower about 30% of the pass-outs failed to get a job in 2009 after getting vocational training from public sector institutes, a government survey has found. The reason, according to a survey done by ministry of labour, says that non-availability of jobs or low salary were the two prime reasons for high unemployment rate in Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs). Most of the trainees...

It was once a sleepy hamlet with rolling stretches of barren land, little agricultural activity and hardly any economy to boast of. But the nuclear power project transformed Kudankulam drastically. There was a minor real estate boom, income levels rose and lifestyles changed. Today, in the place of a small vegetable shop is a market place selling a wide variety of vegetables. All that is set to be reversed.  The anti-nuclear...

Six years after the Right to Information Act was passed by Parliament, the government has made no progress in computerisation of its records, a promise it made in the law itself. Amid growing complaints from departments that most of their time is spent in handling RTIs, the Central Information Commission has now reminded the government to do a status check of the implementation of the RTI Act and computerise all...