-The Times of India   HRD minister Kapil Sibal on Wednesday expressed concern about the failure of big states in implementing the Right to education Act. He was speaking at the state education ministers' conference on chalking out a community mobilization programme for RTE. "It will be a historic failure, if we have passed the Act but not implemented." Sibal said. So far, 20 states have notified RTE rules. However, big states like...

-The Hindustan Times   The World Bank and International Monetary Fund just concluded their annual meetings in Washington. At an event on nutrition in South Asia, the evidence presented was clear and astonishing. On the one hand, South Asia has experienced robust economic growth averaging 6% a year over the past 20 years. On the other hand, the region continues to have unacceptably high rates of malnutrition with Bangladesh and India having...

Centre delinks access to welfare schemes from poverty line NUMBER of people who can benefit from government’s welfare programmes is going to swell. Currently, the Central government caps the entitlements under most welfare programmes to those below the poverty line, which is as low as Rs 12/day/person for rural areas and Rs 18/day/person for urban areas. State governments have been opposing this mechanism. In future, the ongoing socio-economic and caste census...

-The United Nations   A new report by the United Nations labour agency warns of a youth jobs crisis in both developed and developing countries, with young people aged 15 to 24 finding it increasingly difficult to obtain decent employment and future prospects are dim. As it released its “Global Employment Trends for Youth: 2011 Update,” the International Labour Organization (ILO) notes that the recent global economic crisis led to a “substantial” increase...

-The Hindu   A group of 15 experts from various fields has been set up by the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) to interact with Tamil Nadu government officials and spokespersons of the people in the neighbourhood of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNNP) to dispel the apprehensions of the locals on the safety of reactors. Manmohan's assurance The decision follows Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's assurance to a multi-party delegation from Tamil Nadu on October...