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On February 10 this year, the technical education department of Rajasthan government came out with a landmark decision. Nobody who has cleared any semester/year of B.Tech or M.Tech in more than one attempts will be eligible for teaching positions at any degree-level government technical institution in the state. With this order, Rajasthan has become the only state with a clear cut policy aimed at improving the quality of teaching by taking into account the number of attempts made by candidates during their student years.

In India, police are trained well, paid minimally, put to odd times and jobs. Yet they remain in a position of power over the rest of the citizens, which is then used to extract money, and other favours. Political control further aggravates the situation. This is why the need for reform of the police force was felt but the reforms were not really acted upon, and if done, it was merely a lip service. Devika Prasad, who works with police reforms programme of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, talks about the shortcomings

Disappearance of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose has been the biggest mystery of modern India running for almost seven decades and involving multiple international link ups, national political interests and mysticism. GOI Monitor talks to journalist-turned researcher Anuj Dhar who recently came up with his second book on Bose which tries to clear several doubts

It is difficult to make small talk with a woman who has lost her all. Khair-un-Nissa had generously invited me to her home for a meal, a curry made of the famously succulent Black Haringhata hen, no less. The curry was special but it was her house that impressed me most. The bamboo and straw structure boasted a fresh coat of clay. The area was so scrupulously tidy that I felt refreshed the minute I entered the courtyard. Normally, I would be gushing with compliments; in this case a compliment would be tactless.

India spends almost 2.5 per cent of its GDP on elementary education. This includes 0.71 per cent of private expenditure. Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), the flagship government programme on elementary education, got 67 per cent of the total elementary education budget in 2015-16 at Rs 22,000 crore. High expenditure on elementary education per student leads to better learning outcomes but this expenditure is highly inefficient and needs accountability. On the other hand, private expenditure on educaion is rusing even in rural areas where many children are taking private tuitions.

“I beg to place the following resolution before the council for its consideration.…the state should accept in this country the same responsibility in regard to mass education that the government of most civilized countries are already discharging and that a well considered scheme should be drawn up and adhered to till it is carried out..

It is an accident of history that tobacco became a legal product. It would be a fallacy to assume that a product which kills half its consumers was given a legal status by way of logic. When in the beginning of 19th century, tobacco was commercially used for the first

“We will have 9 billion mouths to feed on this earth by 2050 and there will not be enough food for all of us which is why we need to make technological interventions like GM crop to produce more food.” At a time when food prices are soaring and

Across the world, rapid development restricted to few growth centres has induced a major change in land use. Forests and traditional set up have given way to farm houses, orchards, plantations, industries and residential societies. On January 28, 2011, the Supreme Court gave much needed judicial recognition to the importance of ‘Commons’. Commons can be understood as a community’s natural resources such as forests, wastelands, and water resources, where every member has access and usage facility with specified obligations. A policy review draws key lessons from the SC’s directions and steps taken up by state administrations to comply.  

March 2, 2013, proved to be a day of symbolic victory for the critics of Unique Identification Number (UID) as the Chandigarh Administration decided to revoke its order making the number compulsory for vehicle registration and issuance of driving