The executive council (EC) of Jawaharlal Nehru University — the highest decision making body of the institution — has approved the principle of reservation in faculty positions at the higher levels, viz professor and associate professor. “The EC ratified the decision to extend reservation to all levels in its meeting on Monday,” a JNU EC member told HT. This is in conformity with the UGC guidelines issued in 2006 extending quotas to...

The claim that the Unique Identification project will facilitate the delivery of basic health services is dishonest. AMONG the many reasons cited for India to proceed with the Unique Identification (UID) project – that it will facilitate delivery of basic services, that it will plug leakages in public expenditure, that it will speed up achievement of targets in social sector schemes, and so on – the most specious is perhaps the...

Jawaharlal Nehru did a huge amount for education in India. He gave us the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) and much else. Yet, for a man whose birthday is celebrated as Children's Day, he had relatively little to do with primary schooling. The first Five Year Plan allocated just about Rs 12 crore for investment in primary education, out...

Ensure full compliance with Right to Free Education Act Evoking the spirit of Children's Day, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has appealed to teachers to ensure full compliance with the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009. In a message to the “numerous officials in the Education Department, head teachers and teachers of all the 600 districts in the country,” NCPCR chairperson Shantha Sinha said:...

As the local people determinedly continue to resist the commissioning of the Kudankulam reactors, the statements of the nuclear establishment have acquired a desperate edge. The chief of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) claimed that a “foreign hand” was behind the protests. The former President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, while assuring the locals that the reactors were “100% safe,” also wrote an article in The Hindu (“Special Essay,”...