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Medium of instruction means a language used inside the classroom to teach the student. And if a child is not acquainted with the medium of instruction before entering the classroom, then certainly that is a foreign language for the child. Hence, if the child initially fails to grasp the teaching or the course content, it is expected. Teaching a child in an alien language is like putting the child in deep water without any prior knowledge of swimming. So, instruction in mother-tongue is indispensable for the child. Advantage of having a mother-tongue based education enable the child easily grasps the course content as they are used to the vocabulary. Research has shown that children’s first language is the optimal language for literacy and learning throughout primary school (UNESCO 2008 a). Most developed nations have medium of instruction in their mother-tongue. Education is the key to development of the nation and so accordingly the Government of India has enacted Right to Education Act (RTE) on 4th August 2009 keeping provision of compulsory education for children between 6 and 14 in India under Article 21A. India has become the 135th country to make education a fundamental right.

The African leaders have made abundantly clear that for the development of the continent they are open for cooperation with any country that would result in a win-win situation for both. Development of the continent can be possible if there is a greater flow of investment, setting up of industries that would lead to creation of more jobs and skill development, value addition to products for consumption and exports, development of infrastructure, cooperation in energy particularly in renewable energy, education and human resources development, access to markets for trade, development of blue or ocean economy, modernization of agriculture, food security and access to affordable and quality healthcare and services.

Myanmar, now formally a democratic country under a civil government, will go for its second general elections on November 8. In 2011, the army generals who had ruled the country with an iron hand for nearly half a century, decided to shed their uniforms and put on civilian garb to make Myanmar’s ‘democracy’ look credible. They set up a political outfit named Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). The first election in 2011 was a loaded-dice election in which the army-sponsored party was destined to win. The second elections now will be no different either.

It is not the 1975-like Emergency Indira Gandhi had imposed. Nor is there any possibility of the Emergency again being imposed in today’s radically changed India. But the actions and utterances of our present day rulers are creating an Emergency-like atmosphere. First it was Hindutva hardliners and extremists inflammatory utterances which communally polarized the country. While some bhagva activists asked those not supporting PM Modi to go to Pakistan, some others lynched Muslims and attacked churches. How could the Aya Rams Gaya Rams Haryana lag behind? Its former RSS parcharak chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar commented “Muslims can continue to live in the country but they will have to give up eating beef because the cow is an article of faith here”

The Russian offer to India for resumption of the bilateral barter trade could not come at a more appropriate time than now when India’s exports are dipping continuously since the end of last year and Russia is faced with substantial western trade and financial blockade after the US jumped into the Ukraine issue raising it to a crisis level. In the 1970s, both India and the then Soviet Union had benefited significantly from such a barter trade and currency swap arrangement in their bilateral commerce which was subsequently given up on a mutual consent.

The US policy of hegemony lying shattered on the terrorist ravaged soil of Syria with Russia launching a massive offensive action against the extremists, the Obama administration has embarked on the unchartered course to retrieve some of the lost clout and indulge in image makeover by deciding to deploy troops in Syria to fight the ISIS.

The similarity between what the RSS chief, Mohan Bhagwat, said during his customary Dussehra speech about regulating the media, and the topic for discussion at a Prasar Bharati function, is too close to be regarded as a coincidence.

We, the citizens of the Indian Union, cannot afford to forget the year 1965. The world we live in was shaped in no small way by events of that year, though not necessarily by the events that the government of the Indian Union would want us to remember, but by those events that it wants us to forget. The government of the Indian Union is celebrating the 1965 war with pomp and grandeur. While celebrating a war that no one claims was fought for national liberation, human rights or any positive human value, funds have already been pumped in for commemoration.

With the third phase of election in Bihar, having been completed, there are firm indications that Nitish Kumar is way ahead. Ask any voter, go anywhere, the opinion is unanimous: Nitish is forging ahead. With the remaining two rounds of election yet to be completed, it will be premature to hazard a guess on poll outcome but what is clear is that the Grand Alliance, comprising Nitish-Lalu-Congress, is heading for a victory.

Despite the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s clarion call his urban middle class audience did not turn up at the polling booths in large numbers. They have been vocal supporters of Modi but when it came to use their right to vote for bringing about a change as envisaged and emphasized by Modi they were relaxing at their homes. Patna registered a poor turnout of 51 per cent. This was certainly disappointing for the BJP and Modi.