-The Telegraph The quality of elementary education is falling in rural schools almost two years after education was made a fundamental right in April 2010. The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2011, a survey of government and private schools in rural areas conducted by the NGO Pratham, shows a decline in schoolchildren’s “learning outcome levels” compared with the previous year, whether in reading or arithmetic skills. However, students of private schools have...
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Google India invokes freedom-of-speech shield
-The Telegraph Google India, one of nearly two dozen online sites accused of hosting objectionable content, today said blocking them couldn’t be an option as that would violate the right to freedom of speech and expression in a democratic country. “There are serious issues regarding freedom of speech and we are proud to have this freedom in our country unlike a totalitarian regime like China,” the website’s counsel Neeraj Kishan Kaul told...
More »Lady Tarzan cuts timber mafia to size by B Vijay Murty
Eleven years ago, Muturkham forests, lying southeast of capital Ranchi, used to be the timber mafia’s busy workplace. No different from the rest of the state, which has lost 50% of forest cover to illegal logging in the last 10 years. Until 1999, when Muturkham’s jungle mafia met ‘Lady Tarzan’. Jamuna Tuddu, 32, a short and stout woman belonging to the Santahl tribe who had studied till Class X, LED a...
More »Centre dares to talk of 40% hike in urea price amid polls by Deepshikha Sikarwar
The government plans to raise prices of urea, the most widely consumed fertiliser in the country, by a steep 40%. The move, necessitated by the government's mounting subsidy burden, is a test of its political courage as it comes just ahead of elections in five states. Farmers in India use about 28 million tonne of urea annually, of which 6-8 million tonne is imported. The uptrend in prices of imported urea...
More »CBI may book 5 BSP leaders in NRHM scam by Neeraj Chauhan
The CBI is planning to book five senior BSP leaders for their alleged involvement in the Rs 10,000-crore National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam ahead of the UP polls. Sources said the agency is set to register at least 10 more cases. "The enquiry has reveaLED that in several projects related to health and welfare departments of UP, several BSP leaders, including MLAs and MLCs, had connived with private contractors and...
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