-The Indian Express Raipur: The Chhattisgarh Police has found that Maoists are at an advanced stage of developing indigenous propellers and rocket launchers, which not only means that their strategic strength is rising but also that they pose a serious threat to aircraft in the Bastar region. On Friday, for the first time, they managed to bring down an IAF helicoper, forcing it to crash-Land in Sukma district of the state. There...

-The Indian Express Gadchiroli: A top Naxal leader who surrendered recently has said that the government’s twin strategy of security with development has begun to hurt the Maoists, leaving the morale of their cadre affected. “The senior leadership of the party (CPI Maoist) is worried over setbacks due to Operation Greenhunt and the various developmental works undertaken by the government in remote areas of districts like Gadchiroli,” Badarpu Mallaiyya alias Shekhar, the...

-The Indian Express The dismal picture painted in Pratham’s latest Annual Status of Education Report must provoke policymakers to urgently assess and tackle the crisis in India’s primary school education. Pratham, an NGO, has done stellar work these past years in surveying the learning outcomes in schools countrywide. Its 2012 report details a rapid decline in students’ ability to keep up with the syllabus. It has found, for example, that only...

-The Hindu Farmers are opting for the real estate option due to poor agricultural conditions Pushed by unsettling agricultural conditions and pulled by lucrative real estate deals, farmers across the famed and fertile Cauvery delta in Tamil Nadu are selling their Lands to real estate developers. In Amma Chatram, Marudhanallur, Tirunageswarm, Mathur, and in a host of other villages in Thanjavur and adjacent districts, farmLands are being converted to residential plots at...

-Outlook Self-styled godman Asaram Bapu has ran into fresh trouble with the Serious Fraud Investigating Office (SFIO) seeking his prosecution in a Rs 700 crore Land grab case in Madhya Pradesh. The case pertains to 200 acres of Land in Ratlam and the SFIO, which wants to prosecute Asaram and his son under the provisions of Indian Penal Code and Companies Act 1956, recently send its recommendation to the Ministry of Corporate...