-The Hindu A levy on firms, resources from which are earmarked for vocational training, is what could help the country bridge the skill gap in its workforce. Financing technical vocational education and training (VET) is costlier than general education due to its technical nature. Pre-service training requires the installation of equipment and trained instructors to train youth. This raises the cost of training, and remains a factor preventing pre-service training from expanding...

-The Hindu As of July 2016, 33,091 NGOs were registered under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, which regulates foreign funding to these bodies. A total of 3,068 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) received foreign funding above Rs. 22,000 crore in 2014-15, according to government data presented in response to a question in Parliament. These are NGOs who reported receiving more than Rs. 1 crore from foreign donors. This amount was 83.3 per cent (nearly double)...

-The Times of India PATNA: The flood situation in Bihar worsened on Sunday, with many rivers breaching their banks and affecting hundreds of thousands of people, officials said. More than 2.6 million people have been hit by the floods in the state including half a million who have been displaced across 12 districts, the officials said. Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav visited the flood affected Supaul district on Sunday and said:...

-Press Statement from Right to Education Forum Lok Sabha has passed today Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2012 and allowed work for children below the age of 14 years in family enterprises is a regressive move. RTE Forum, a coalition of ten thousand grass-root organizations, people’s movement, educationists and teachers organizations, has said that  “Today is black day for the millions of Indian children; they will now be deprived...

-TheWire.in Swaraj Abhiyan founder Prashant Bhushan discusses the Essar tapes and other scams, the role of whistleblowers and his fallout with Arvind Kejriwal. Celebrated lawyer-activist Prashant Bhushan has just notched up another victory with the Supreme Court-appointed panel decreeing there was prima facie evidence that former CBI director Ranjit Sinha had attempted to influence the investigation into the coal block allocation scam under the then UPA government. The court’s observation was based...