-PTI AGARTALA: India's northeastern state of Tripura achieved the first position in literacy with 94.65 per cent, beating Kerala (93.91 per cent), Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar announced here on Sunday. "Tripura jumped to first position among the states of the country in literacy from the 12th position in the 2001 census and the fourth position in the 2011 census," Sarkar said at a function on the occasion of International Literacy Day. Sarkar...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The goons and police can hang their heads in shame. Together, for once. The Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha today with overwhelming support, with almost every speaker narrating how the police and criminals harass hawkers. The debate wove a tragic tale of exploitation and neglect of the poorest "entrepreneurs" of society while powerful support systems were available...

-The Indian Express Holding back the RTI amendment is not the best way to address public concerns about party finance. There has been great civil society uproar over the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2013, which aims to extricate political parties from mandatory public disclosures, and nullify the Central Information Commission's recent order. While passing the amendment would have been all too easy, given the broad political consensus, a last-minute turnaround in...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Prime Minister's Office held an urgent meeting with income tax department officials on Monday to discuss the fallout of the PM's National Relief Fund facing de-recognition of its Permanent Account Number (PAN). Having received objections from some quarters that the PM's relief fund is a private body and not a government entity, the PAN obtained for receiving donations faces de-recognition as it was obtained in...

-Down to Earth Our policy makers should move away from the income criterion for estimating poverty and take cognisance of other indicators Amid mounting criticism and heated debates about the poverty line, a challenge has resurfaced to examine whether there could be a single non-monetary criterion of estimating poverty. A poverty line is a monetary cut-off point below which a person is deemed to be poor. Thus, any attempt to measure poverty...