Half of the country's population still defecates in the open even after 60 years of independence, the Planning Commission has admitted.  Faced with the harsh reality of open defecation by a vast majority, affecting the dignity of women and girls the most, the plan panel is revamping its strategy and is set to raise spending on government programme on sanitation and drinking water.  "Around 60 crore people defecate in the open," plan...

-The Hindustan Times   The government is drafting the framework of a “white paper” on black money that it is likely to present before Parliament in the forthcoming budget session. The white paper, however, is unlikely to disclose any names of individuals or entities, despite the opposition’s demand to make public the names of those who are found have to stashed money in banks in overseas tax havens, sources told HT. The finance...

The Supreme Court today vacated a 2010 Gauhati High Court order that banned recruitment of elementary school (lower and upper primary) teachers in Assam. This will pave the way for recruitment of some 1,00,000 teachers in the state. The high court had on March 5, 2010, Restrained the state from recruiting teachers on a petition that challenged illegal appointments of 3,813 (3,147 in lower primary and 666 in upper primary schools) teachers...

The state education board is set to usher in a more transparent evaluation system: starting this year, students sitting for the Class X state board exam and the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) will be able to get a copy of their corrected answer booklets under the Right To Information (RTI) Act. In the past, the state board did not entertain RTI applications from students who wished to see their evaluated...

Dalit families in Kalanahundi Village, 5km from Chamarajanagar town, have threatened to convert to Buddhism, to protest against the alleged discrimination by upper-caste Hindus.  The District Federation of Dalit organizationshave planned a mass 'Buddha dhamma deeksha' programme in the village in the last week of February, when hundreds of dalits in the district, including Kalanahundi dalits, are anticipated toembrace Buddhism.  However, additional SP K H Chandrashekar said that the jathra that was...