Pratham's latest report on rural education has some good news, but it's mainly bad.
The map below shows the classification of this score into Mostly Dirty, Somewhat Clean and Mostly Clean.
Now, government is also contracting imports.
The government of UP has made it a habit of sorts to move against -- or better still, lock up -- mediapersons who give cause for displeasure, says Shuma Raha.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav made a surprise visit to Congress President Sonia Gandhi's Lok Sabha constituency of Rae Bareli on Wednesday where, among other things, he ordered action against two district officials for laxity in service.
It was a protest which held a mirror to the government of a state taking pride in its commitment to democracy, gender equality and social indices.One person, who in his employed days had known governments and political parties at close quarters, told me that public perception of how the Kerala government handled the ASHA workers' strike had been terrible, reports Shyam G Menon.
'UBI is a tricky subject.' 'Our worry is the government could get rid of UPA's social welfare schemes targeted at the poor.'
Beti Bachao Beti Padhao is for protection and education of girl child
Shah said the revocation of the special status has paved the way for development in Jammu and Kashmir and it will be a "final nail in the coffin of terrorism".
The Congress has so far announced 82 candidates for the seven-phase Lok Sabha polls beginning April 19.
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Sunday hit back at Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for calling the national party "corrupt", saying the ruling Biju Janata Dal is responsible for a series of scams in the state.
'So why didn't the police make it very clear that this is the line of investigation, this is what we are doing.' 'Nobody knows what kind of report was done.' 'Was she checked for (sexual assault)?'
It is not unlikely that ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP government comes up with more imaginative schemes aimed at constituency-building. The party under Modi's leadership has a more modern thinking in such matters unlike its rivals, which are still steeped only in ideology, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
'By taking fingerprints, iris scans and other details of citizens, the State is becoming the custodian of its people.' 'The State can use this data according to its whims and fancies, which is not good in a democracy.' 'When the State looks at all the activities of its citizens, it becomes a police State.'
He conveyed India's position to visiting Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization Jose Graziano da Silva whom he urged to take the lead in protecting the interests of the poor and farmers at the World Trade Organisation.
To help the country emerge as a true welfare State, political parties must put the country's interests first before strategising to win elections and short-term goals, argues Ramesh Menon.
India's rural employment guarantee programme MNREGA has been ranked as the world's largest public works programme, providing social security net to almost 15 per cent of the country's population, the World Bank has said.
Whether it was the MGNREGS or the NFSA or the Aadhaar-based DBT scheme for cash transfer, the Modi government has built on the basic architecture created by the Singh government. Policy makers in the Modi government, instead of discarding them as products of the previous political regime, worked on them, expanded their scope and reach, and used new tools to improve their performance, explains A K Bhattacharya.
Apart from outlining its future plans for the development of Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar led party also referred to poll promises made by the rival Grand Alliance, including approving 10 lakh jobs, and sought to know from where would they manage Rs 5 lakh crore additional money that will be required for fulfilling their 'lofty' announcements.
Sanjeev Nayyar visits an Amma canteen in Chennai, and comes back impressed
Shrug off the yoke of the imperialism of Delhi. That is why the DMK manifesto offers what it offers: The promise that Tamil Nadu will, one day, become an independent republic, notes Aditi Phadnis.
Attacking Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the proposed Food Security Bill, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi said the bill, in its current form, will push the country toward "malnutrition".
Blame the voter, who invariably chooses the promise of hand-outs today in preference to a vague promise of, say, better schools tomorrow. Getting the Supreme Court to issue an edict, or Parliament to pass a law, is no solution, observes T N Ninan.
Addressing a summit in Varanasi on the implementation of the National Education Policy, Modi said the system should not just produce degree-holders but provide human resources needed to take the country forward.
Calling the Congress-National Congress Party split in Maharashtra a "farce", Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said they were one and the separation was meant to divert the attention of voters ahead of the assembly poll.
'The prospects for both India and the global economy is that we are headed towards a very difficult time.' 'I see very uncertain at least 8-10 months for both India and the rest of the world.'
Indian billionaires saw their combined fortunes more than double during the COVID-19 pandemic, and their count shot up by 39 per cent to 142, while the wealth of the ten richest is enough to fund school and higher education of children in the country for 25 years, a new study showed on Monday. In its annual inequality survey released on the first day of the World Economic Forum's online Davos Agenda summit, Oxfam India further said that an additional one per cent tax on the richest 10 per cent can provide the country with nearly 17.7 lakh extra oxygen cylinders, while a similar wealth tax on the 98 richest billionaire families would finance Ayushman Bharat, the world's largest health insurance scheme, for more than seven years. The COVID-19 pandemic saw a huge rush for oxygen cylinders and insurance claims during the second wave last year.
Ahead of the state assembly elections due this year-end, Baghel made as many as 15 announcements in his address during the state-level Independence Day function at the Police Parade ground in Raipur.
Quinoa is said to play a role in the treatment of as many as 20-odd ailments, including liver problems, angina, notes Surinder Sud.
Kejriwal had on Sunday assured the bureaucrats that he will use all the powers and resources at his command to ensure their safety and security and called them part of his family.
By keeping the Sanatana Dharma row alive and adding the Ayodhya temple consecration scheduled for January 22 and adding the free darshan promise from four polled states to the entire country, the BJP may have a self-fulfilling concoction, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
Stalin, like his father M Karunanidhi did in 2004, may play the king-maker in a way -- not the king, unless the 2024 post-poll circumstances throws up a situation where he alone becomes acceptable to the rest, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Without reviving employment, consumer confidence will not go up.'
'From March 2020 to November 2021, the combined wealth of the billionaires of this country has doubled.'
While the likelihood of these states going the Lanka or Greece way may be an alarming assessment, the financial situation of some states such as Punjab and West Bengal is indeed quite weak.
Back of the envelope calculations put government expense on each of the new schemes promised by the DMK and the AIADMK at tens of thousands of crores. But then, neither party has said how they are going to also address the mounting debt burden either, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
He also announced that 50 per cent of the DTC buses will be operational from Tuesday to ensure that those involved in essential services do not face problems. He said that there were 30 cases in Delhi till date, out of which 23 were reported from people who came from the affected countries and seven were infected through the local transmission.
The sops sanctioned by J Jayalalithaa on her first day in office could cost the exchequer up to Rs 8,000 crore annually.
The need for co-ordinated policy between Centre and states was likewise foreseen and assigned.
