The state government will require an additional 43,500 primary school teachers to implement the right to education (RTE) Act, 2009, in schools managed/aided by the government and civic bodies, a preliminary report by the state primary education department has revealed. Under the act, every child between 6-14 years of age will be provided eight years of elementary education in an age-appropriate classroom in his/her neighbourhood. According to the primary report prepared by...

Bihar's programme of filing RTI applications through a call center is a novel one. The question is whether the model is effiicient enough to be replicated in other states like Karnataka. If you are in Bihar, you can get electronic goods repaired, phone numbers, buy things through call centres — and also file an RTI application. Zafar Hassan has filed two applications in the past two years through call centres,...

The state government has decided to ask private schools to furnish details of their accounts to stop them from indiscriminately hiking fees. Although all private schools will be required to reveal the data, the government’s focus is on English-medium institutions as they have been frequently accused of raising fees arbitrarily. The state education department will soon send a circular to nearly 500 private English-medium schools — both unaided and partially aided (those...

All speakers addressing the main session of the World Water Week in Sweden during 5-11 September were presented with a beautifully wrapped bottle of tap water! Yes, you heard right: tap water from Stockholm. It is a symbol of achievement that the Swedes love to flaunt—and rightly so. It is also the best gift the Indian government can give to all Indians in general, and particularly those 500-odd million that live...

The green hills -- those that once used to soothe the entire region through the stilly silence, and fill it with the great wonder of multitudinousness -- have suddenly turned into a valley of death. First Diarrhea and then Cholera, the quiet bosom of the picturesque Raygada district is today torn by the screams of pain and loss of lives. People are dying like flies and hundreds are lying on...