-Mail Online India Concerned over the rigidity of some provisions of the Right to Education Act, members of the National Advisory Council (NAC) are working on a report recommending review of the norms and standards laid down for schools under the legislation. The NAC, led by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, has been advising the central government on the effective implementation of the provisions of the RTE Act. Calling the Act as excessively 'input-driven',...

-The Hindu Let us begin by listening to Mira’s story. When I learnt that I have been granted admission in the college of my choice, fear of being part of the “rest of the world” gripped me. Though confident about my academic abilities, I was terrified at the thought of how the “others” would react to me: a cerebral palsy wheelchair user with a speech difficult to comprehend and a drooling mouth....

The government and the MCI dither on a proposed course to provide better primary health care in villages. On February 27, the Delhi High Court slapped contempt notices on the Union Health Secretary and the Chairperson of the Medical Council of India (MCI) for their non-compliance with its order of November 10, 2010, to initiate measures to introduce a “Bachelor of Rural Health Care (BRHC)” course of three and a half...

As the June 10 deadline for implementing the 25% quota for students belonging to economically weaker sections draws near, the state has launched checks to verify the minority status of schools. According to the Supreme Court judgment, minority unaided schools will be exempted from implementing the 25% reservation under Right to Education Act. Suspecting that big schools might try to weasel their way out of implementing the provisions of the Right of...

The country is clearly shaping its legislation to promote access to medicines by fostering generic production. INDIA'S approach to the revision of its Patents Act in 2005 is a clear example of a country shaping its legislation to promote access to medicines by fostering generic production. Although World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules made it mandatory for India to put in place a patent regime for medicines by 2005, nothing obliges...