-The Indian Express   The Right to Education Act, or RTE, has been justly criticised as forcing all of India’s educational establishments into a bureaucratic straitjacket. Its aim is laudable and urgent: to ensure that every Indian child has access to an education that meets CERTain minimum standards. But figuring out those standards is hard, and this is where Delhi’s tendency to obsessively centralise, divorced from the actual realities of education...

It was the writer and activist Arundhati Roy who set foreign journalists in India busily chattering recently. In an interview with Stephen Moss in the Guardian, Ms Roy was discussing the Maoist and Adavasi “resistance” to encroachment on tribal lands. Mr Moss, asked her why, “we in the West don’t hear about these mini-wars?”. Ms Roy replied: “I have been told quite openly by several correspondents of international newspapers, that...

-PTI ‘She could approach trial court for bail once charges are framed' The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed DMK Member of Parliament Kanimozhi's bail plea in the 2G spectrum allocation case and questioned the Central Bureau of Investigation for its failure to interrogate the accused for recovering CERTain documents. However, the court offered her some hope, saying she could approach the trial court for bail once charges are framed. It said she shall...

-The United Nations A top UN official today called on governments, private companies and individuals to join in the battle against non-communicable diseases (NCDs), those that are linked to tobacco, pollution, food and lack of exercise. Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro, addressing a forum entitled The Human and Economic Case to Urgently Address Non-communicable Diseases, said the UN and partners would join in a campaign to “promote exercise, reduce excessive consumption of alcohol...

In what appears to be a desperate attempt to escape liabilities following the implementation of Right to Education (RTE), two public schools of the city have shown zero admission in nursery classes. This came to light during scrutiny of annual reports of admissions submitted by schools by the office of district education officer here. Surprised over the act, the DEO has put records of all schools under scanner. DEO Jagjit...