Scroll.in Though the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE Act) has refocussed attention on school education in recent years, some fundamental problems continue to plague the system. Despite the constitutional and legal obligations of governments, education budgets have remained modest and woefully inadequate to requirements. While there has been a reasonable expansion of coverage and enrolment in schools, the fundamental issue of poor learning outcomes, especially...

-The Hindu Business Line The National Food Security Act could adopt standardised criteria to identify beneficiaries across States/UTs India’s development report cards have long been plagued by high incidence of malnutrition, making it an often-cited example of the nation’s growth conundrum. With the country being home to more than one-third of undernourished children, it is evident that the problem underlines the need for a targeted and multi-sectoral approach, with the benefits of...

-The Hindu What is the trigger for the current conflict? Why did the Supreme Court strike down the law on National Judicial Appointments? What is the government’s grouse against the Collegium system? What is the new CJI planning?  The story so far: A major confrontation is on between the Union government and the Supreme Court over the former’s resentment towards the Collegium system of appointments and its push to have a dominant...

-The Hindu The question came in response to the Attorney General’s statement that the government and the RBI had ‘acted in consultation’ to notify demonetisation in November 2016 The Supreme Court on Monday asked the government whether it would have brushed aside objections from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had the Central bank opposed the demonetisation policy. The question from the Constitution Bench led by Justice S. Abdul Nazeer came after Attorney...

-The Telegraph Citizens’ participation in policy-making is an important factor in assessing the quality of democracy Within five days of the announcement of Agnipath, the scheme had been amended 10 times, raising the larger question concerning consultation in policy-making. The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government has taken a number of policy decisions without public consultation — from demonetisation, which saw 60 changes in 43 days, to GST, which has been...