BJP’s Record on Education Runs Afoul of Its Own Manifesto

In their short social life and even shorter life in public memory, election manifestos perform a variety of tasks. Attempting to strike different notes at once, they sway between grandiose promise-making, novelty and a teaser of all good things that would unfurl post-elections. Intentions, promises and possible actions form common elements of the script that covers broad issues including foreign relations, defence and social security. While revealing an overall direction, focus and emphasis, manifestos also do the work of re-framing, re-naming and signalling. Given its crucial role in not just…

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Rain industries Q4 CY18 review: Business in transition; accumulate on dips

Rain Industries reported a weak set of Q4 CY18 earnings. Its earnings were anticipated to be subdued due to delayed permission to import a key raw material, green petroleum coke (GPC) and a continued import ban of  calcined petroleum coke CPC) used for blending key product. But what really caused the disappointment was the adverse impact of high-cost inventory. Result analysis Volume trend in product sales  Key negatives High-cost inventory continues to impact profitability of most chemical products in carbon (68 percent of total sales) and advance materials (25 percent of total sales) segments.…

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Guess who’s working on a health data-slurping digital tool. Bzzt! Nope, it’s the UK Department for Work and Pensions

The UK’s Department for Work and Pensions is drawing up plans for an internal service that allows it to automate slurps of medical data on claimants to dole out health-related benefits. In an ad posted on the UK’s Digital Marketplace, DWP said the work was currently in alpha and it now wanted a supplier to deliver a technical proof of concept to expose NHS data to the department’s systems. The aim, it said, is to cut down the time and cost involved in gathering information the department needs to make a…

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Letters: working together on mental health

 Claire Murdoch: ‘Mental health is everyone’s responsibility.’ Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian As a mental health nurse since 1984, stories like this never get easier to read (“Suicidal children face long delays for mental health care”, News). One delay is one too many but context is vital too. Your article was based on a small audit from a single London hospital, using outdated information going back four years. There was precious little explanation about how mental health services are improving or what is driving demand for care. In London alone, the…

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Shashi Tharoor: Trolling on social media BJP’s organised activity

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor (File) Trolling of political opponents on social media is an organised activity of the BJP, said Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Saturday. He was speaking at an event, Netizens For Democracy, organised to discuss social media’s pros and cons. The event was organised by Citizens of Justice and Peace (CJP), All India Professionals Congress and some other resident groups at Bandra West. “Trolling is an organised technique of the ruling party. They have cells and there is an army of trolls who have multiple accounts. They get instructions,…

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Matt Kuchar, social media, and stories that take on lives of their own

att Kuchar leaves Hawaii a winner, but not entirely unscathed. That’s the prevailing sentiment from a sect of golf observers, the byproduct of an accusation by a former PGA Tour player on Saturday afternoon. The match was lit at 5:08 p.m. ET; by 10, Kuchar, a beloved and venerated personality by American crowds, had come on the business end of a Twitter roasting . . . over how much he paid a fill-in caddie. Five hours is all it took. Five hours in which Kuchar was on the golf course,…

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