To protect the interests of students seeking admission, the Centre is planning a law to check unfair practices in schools, ranging from donations and nexus with coaching centres. The proposed “The Prohibition of Unfair Practices in Schools and Intermediate Colleges Bill, 2011” aims at promoting transparency through mandatory self-disclosure in the prospectus and on the website, and provide adequate and accessible recourse for remedial action arising out of non-adherence to self-disclosed...

Cash transfers are now suggested by many as a silver bullet for addressing the problems that plague India’s anti-poverty programmes. This article argues instead for evidence-based policy and informed public debate to clarify the place, prospects and problems of cash transfers in India. By drawing on key empirical findings from academic and grey literature across the world an attempt is made to draw attention to three aspects of cash transfers...

-The Times of India   For a government harping on transparency and accountability, a glance through the websites of various departments brings to the fore the pathetic state of the implementation of the RTI Act. Incidentally, it was Rajasthan that laid the foundation for this law. A survey by the Suchna Evum Rozgar Ka Adhikar Abhiyan, based on the websites of 64 government departments, shows that there are at least 17...

-The Hindu   The Census of 2011 revealed that the sex ratio in the 0-6 age group is worse now than in any decade since Independence. It is indisputable that this distressing trend is the result of more people having easier access to medical technologies that reveal the sex of the foetus, and opting for sex-selective abortions. New research published by The Lancet provides further insights into the phenomenon of ‘missing...

The steadily rising rate of economic growth in India has recently been around 8 percent per year (it is expected to be 9 percent this year), and there is much speculation about whether and when India may catch up with and surpass China’s over 10 percent growth rate. Despite the evident excitement that this subject seems to cause in India and abroad, it is surely rather silly to be obsessed...