-The Telegraph The Planning Commission has proposed that children undergo a year’s pre-schooling at government schools before they are admitted to Class I. If the proposal is accepted, it would virtually make education a right for children between the age of five and 14, rather than six and 14 as laid down by the Right to Education Act, education experts said. Pre-schooling is now a facet only of private schools in India. Nearly...

-IPS News World Water Week recently concluded in Stockholm with a special emphasis on the linkages between water and food security. From the worst drought in 56 years in the United States Midwest, to the Karnataka’s drought in India, to the protracted drought in the Sahel region of West Africa, we have also seen how in our globalised world the nexus between lack of water and food security in one corner of...

-Deccan Herald Farmers in Haryana villages have maintained insect equilibrium by pitting beneficial insects against the harmful. In the great Indian epic, Mahabharata, there is a telling story of the valiant Abhimanyu who died fighting while trying to pierce through a Chakravyuah (seven rings). Mahabharata tells us that Abhimanyu had learnt the art of smashing through the seven layers of the human chain of the Chakravyuah. In lot many ways, I find the...

-The Hindu Kudankulam and the surrounding areas remained tense on an incident-free Tuesday, after Monday’s violent happenings. Villages in a radius of 25 km, including Anjugramam, Chettikulam, Sree Renganarayanapuram, Levenchipuram, Viswanathapuram, Kudankulam and Idinthakarai, wore a deserted look after the suspension of Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation bus services. People confined themselves to their homes as the tense situation continued to prevail in and around Kudankulam. According to official sources, the TNSTC...

-The Hindu Pitched battles at Kudankulam; one killed in Tuticorin police firing The hitherto-peaceful agitation against the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project in Tamil Nadu turned violent on Monday, with protesters attacking policemen, and police resorting to lathi-charge and the firing of teargas shells. The agitation, which was confined to Idinthakarai and surrounding villages, spilled over to the neighbouring Tuticorin district where one fisherman died when police opened fire. Battlefield In the morning, the Idinthakarai beach...