The fourth annual Tata Consultancy Services-EducationWorld Teachers Awards 2008 attracted 18,000 nominations from 2,500 schools across the country. At a meticulously planned awards ceremony staged in Lucknow, the eight finalists — all women —were showered with cash awards, certificates and mementos

Neither the over-hyped dream team of the Central government, the kleptocracies of state capitals, nor the subsidies- addicted great Indian middle class, seems interested in paying more than ritual obeisance to the cause of primary education, particularly of the huge mass of children of the poor

Rajiv Desai is president of Comma Consulting and a well-known Delhi-based columnist

Sixty years after independence, the 4,000 members of the elite IAS continue to exercise power out of all proportion to their number, as they preside over the country’s massive bureaucracy

Cool, exotic, affordable and renowned for superlative service, the land of smiles, which attracted a record 14 million tourists last year (2007), is of special interest to discerning Indian tourists. Ayutthaya, the earlier capital of the Thai kingdom founded by King U-Thong, was named after the sacred city of Ayodhya in India