-The Hindu Forest rights campaigners have slammed the satellite image-based study on the implementation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) in Maharashtra as "deeply faulty and obviously biased," arguing that it manipulates data and facts to make a case against the Act. Countering the report which a private company prepared at the behest of the State Forest Department, a critique by Madhu Sarin and others of the Campaign for Survival and Dignity...

-The Hindu Hyderabad: The Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) sub-plans, for whose implementation the Government adopted a legislation recently, have finally been named "Indiramma Kalalu (dreams). The implementation of these plans is being launched formally by Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy in West Godavari and Khammam districts on Friday, marking the celebrations of 106th jayanti of late Jagjivan Ram. The Government is taking pride that AP has emerged as the...

-The Economic Times Six years after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh first urged India Inc to pro-actively offer employment to the less privileged sections of society, the government has not been able to walk the talk. A special recruitment drive initiated by it has failed to meet targets. Under the government's affirmative drive launched in 2008 and focused purely on offering jobs to candidates from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes...

-The Times of India As many as 13 states and Union Territories showed a decline in girls' enrolment, while about 10 displayed a dip in overall students' admission painting a dismal picture of inclusive education for children with disabilities. A nationwide study - conducted by the NCERT to assess enrolment, access and retention of students with disabilities found that states like Bihar, Delhi, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, West Bengal among others -...

-The Hindu   The government does it purely on the strength of a certificate issued by the district administration Even as the recent affidavit submitted by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) before the Supreme Court in the Vedanta case has caused dismay among tribal communities and activists for the dilution of its stand on diverting forest lands of tribal communities, the Ministry has gone a step further and allowed diversion...