-The Times of India MUMBAI: Enterprising lawyers and gender equality experts have spotted a business opportunity in the new law against sexual harassment of women at work. With the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition & Redressal) Act, 2013 raising major concerns with respect to corporate liability and a potential threat to reputation on non-compliance, organizations are turning to the pros. This new breed of consultants helps companies with gender...

-Economic and Political Weekly   Through a two-way process comprising text analysis of the policy framework of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan programme and analysis of empirical data collected through interaction with policy implementers, teachers, students, experts, etc, this article puts forth the argument that urban education system has failed partly because of the inability of the implementers to plan, manage and facilitate the programme. Monika Banerjee (banerjie77@gmail.com) is with the Zakir Husain Centre...

-The Indian Express International experience points to the dangers in moving towards a system of health insurance coverage. Improving government services is the answer. Last month, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan offered a glimpse into the new government's universal health assurance scheme, of which insurance will be an important component. Health insurance is also part of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, the NDA government's financial inclusion programme. But international experience does...

-PTI   HRD minister Smriti Irani on Sunday favoured strong linkages between institutes of higher learning and rural India for the development of villages and suggested that they should start courses on rural development. She said her ministry would also set up "cell" to see that educational institutions were engaged in programmes aimed at development of rural India. "Our aim in the coming five years is that all technical institutions are connected to the...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: About half of all Indian students were perceived by teachers as lacking the skills required for the class or grade they were entering, despite the same teachers also believing that the learning environment had improved over the last decade. This was revealed in a survey of over 5,000 teachers from schools and institutions of higher education from over 200 cities across the country. The teachers identified...