-Reuters   PERLE: As a shiny red harvester bounces across the black earth into the first row of sugar cane, excited schoolchildren run after it and several dozen men stand gaping in the wake of its swift progress. It's the first time that Perle, a village on the banks of the Krishna river in Maharashtra state, has seen a machine used for cutting the tough cane. "This machine will harvest my entire field today,"...

-PTI Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit Wednesday said it was not fair to expect schools to take in children from Economically weaker sections (EWS) when a cap on their fees and charges had also been imposed. “One unfortunate things is to put a cap on their (private schools) charges. Now, that is also not fair, because remember that primary schools have to meet their expenditures,” Dikshit said. She said while government could meet...

-The Hindustan Times The country recorded a marginal fall in atrocities against Dalits in 2010 over the previous year. The conviction rate for atrocities improved by 5.5%, but what alarms is the high pendency rate of 78.7%. Though the Mayawati government ensured a drop in atrocities on SCs, evident by a fall of 1,189 cases over 2009, UP still tops the chart for such cases. The state recorded 6,272 cases forming 19.2%...

-Economic and Political Weekly Two years after the Right to Education Act, the government needs to focus on quality. Two years is perhaps too short a period in which to assess how effective the groundbreaking Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 (RTE), which came into effect on 1 April 2010, has been in raising standards of education in a country as diverse as India. The very fact that...

A healthcare model relying mainly on people from within the community to provide care is reaping success One of India’s most backward districts and Maharashtra’s worst ranked in human development indicators, Gadchiroli, today finds itself at the forefront of a healthcare revolution that can potentially save millions of infant lives and help India rapidly reduce her abysmal infant mortality rate (IMR). Under the aegis of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), India...