Parents should enroll their children in coding classes only as a leisure time activity, that too with strict curbs on screen time.
In his valedictory address at the two-day National Executive meeting of the BJP in the national capital on Tuesday, Modi spoke about areas where the party needs to be strengthened ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
'The government should immediately enact an Act to make caste discrimination a criminal offence and lay down a procedure similar to that of the Anti-Ragging Act.' 'Ragging has nearly been eliminated because it is treated as a criminal offence.' 'Similar procedure should be used in case of caste discrimination.'
Gandhi said for the first time he has seen that all sections of the society in the state were 'protesting', whether it was the Patidars, Dalits, anganwadi workers or farmers.
On one hand, South Indian states have been complaining about denial of a proportionate portion of the sharable funds from the Centre, based on population. On the other hand, they stand to lose Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha seats that again are based on population, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Minister of State for External Affairs B Muraleedharan said India is committed to developing friendly and mutually beneficial relations with all its neighbours under its 'Neighbourhood First' policy.
Most politicians and even non-politicians have been honoured because of what they were purported to be electorally worth for the ruling party of their time, argues N Sathiya Moorthy.
Sisodia's arrest, one of the high-profile actions against an opposition leader, came after that of Satyendar Jain, Delhi's then health minister, in June last year.
'Both the people have a perspective and are people of stature and people of understanding'
Addressing a press conference a day after the CBI raid against him, Sisodia expressed apprehension that the agency or the Enforcement Directorate (ED) may arrest him in the next 3-4 days, while Chief Minister Kejriwal, who has been aggressively taking on the Bharatiya Janata Party in Modi's home state, announced on Twitter that he will be touring Gujarat with Sisodia from Monday.
Amid ongoing row over replacing German with Sanskrit as third language in Kendriya Vidyalayas, German Ambassador Michael Steiner on Wednesday reached out to Sanskrit teachers, including Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ideologue Dina Nath Batra and decided to resolve the issue through more cultural exchanges.
Following her spat, 'Aunty National' Irani took to Facebook to speak out against her detractors. Here's the Facebook post in response to her critics which Rediff.com represents verbatim:
Union HRD minister says women in the country are not told what to wear, whom to meet and where to go.
From April 1 next year, over 600 state-run Madrassas will be converted into upper primary, high and higher secondary schools with no change of status, pay, allowances and service conditions of the teaching and non-teaching staff.
'Is there any harm in studying the history of India? This is not a regressive stand. The Vedas and Upanishads should be included in our textbooks,' says Dinanath Batra.
"Learning from each other is one way of moving forward," Dr Singh said.
The BJP welcomed the CBI move, claiming that it had been saying all along that Kejriwal was the 'mastermind of the liquor scam'.
I will tell you one thing, to be the Foreign Minister of Modi government is also a great strength, Jaishankar said.
There have been media reports of Banerjee meeting Rahul Gandhi at his residence in New Delhi on Wednesday morning. A leading Bengali daily had reported the meeting.
'The BJP is scared it may lose the Delhi municipal elections where they have been in power for the last 15 years.'
The AAP leaders have alleged that four MLAs were offered money by the BJP to quit the party.
Do India's laws governing the Internet need revolutionary change, asks Ajit Balakrishnan.
Is the unusually and unbearably scorching Sun and the general laxity, bordering on laziness, among voters, responsible, asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
Medical seats for under-graduates and post-graduates remaining vacant in the NEET era, together with the Centre 'freezing' the number of medical colleges and seats in (Dravidian) Tamil Nadu and the launch of the PM's 'Vishwakarma Scheme' for the nation's craftsmen, are all seen as a bid to further reverse the state's progressive socio-economic agenda of and its achievements of the past hundred-plus years, argues N Sathiya Moorthy.
While the responses of the candidates were predictable, depending on which side they belonged to, an interesting point slipped through when Rahul Shewale cited the Dharavi Redevelopment Project as a scheme that would add to Mumbai's importance. No big infrastructural project in Mumbai, he said, could be successful without the Centre's nod.
'He is exposing the failings of the BJP, which is rankling the party.'
The Appointments Committee of Cabinet has named Ravneet Kaur, a Punjab cadre IAS officer of 1988 batch, as chairperson of the Competition Commission of India (CCI). Kaur will hold the post for five years or until attaining the age of 65. She is the second woman to serve in an 'economic regulator' role after Madhabi Puri Buch, who was appointed chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Board of India last year and the first woman to head the country's chief national competition regulator.
The 'Pesta Demokrasi' is a cause for celebration not only for Indonesia but also for democracy and forces for peace all over the globe, notes Sandeep Chakravorty, India's Ambassador to Indonesia.
The nine-page guidelines have been issued days after the state government set up a 15-member committee headed by education secretary Bhawani Singh Detha to examine the issue after record student suicides were reported from coaching hub Kota.
A total of 415 million people moved out of poverty in India within just 15 years from 2005/2006 to 2019/2021, the United Nations said on Tuesday, highlighting the remarkable achievement by the world's most populous nation.
Earlier this week, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said a law on population control would not serve any purpose but insisted instead on education for girls and women.
The country's demographic dividend is dissipating, with seriously adverse consequences for young India, asserts Shankar Acharya, former Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India.
'There are many things we need to work on.' 'At the heart of it is, one, the extent of inequality, which is not good for democracy and nation; two, a structural decline on how a country ought to function, how people should be held accountable, whose role is what.'
India on Tuesday told the UN General Assembly that the days when a few nations set the agenda and expected others to fall in line are over, underlining that its presidency of the G20 sought to focus on key concerns of the many, not just the narrow interests of a few.
There will be a lot to repair and rejuvenate -- if that opportunity even presents itself, warns Rathin Roy.
To a question on switching loyalties between one party to another, she said she would stay put with the BJP for all time.
Biden said, "One of the reasons why President Obama called our relations with India, quote, "a defining partnership of the century ahead" is that India is increasingly looking east as a force for security and growth in Southeast Asia and beyond."
Indications are that the DMK combine will win more seats than the AIADMK and BJP, but is facing a tough fight in about half a dozen from the rest, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy of the electoral contest in Tamil Nadu.
'The household sector, which is still the largest contributor of financial savings, has been experiencing a decline in the last six years, and it has fallen below 8% of GDP.'
For all its claims to economic glory, the majority of India's population lives vulnerable lives, a situation that has only worsened over the past 15 years, to the extent that the government now fears to release economic data or even conduct a proper Census, notes Rathin Roy.
