Inflation dip buoys FM
   Any guess? It is the fall in inflation rate, which is making Finance Minister P C Chidambaram happy.
   Recently,  Mr Chidambaram was briefing newspersons on the series of decisions taken by the Union Cabinet. 
   As usual he was wearing a serious look and started briefing on Cabinet decisions one by one.
   Towards the end, a scribe asked: “Was there any meeting of Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA)?”
   “NO”, said the minister sternly.
   “But, there was a meeting of Cabinet Committee on Prices. It reviewed the price situation”, Chidambaram said. After a pause, he flashed a bright smile, saying “the inflation has come down to 5.06 per cent”.
   Normally, Chidambaram makes a quick exit as soon as he finishes the briefing.  
   This time round, a smiling Chidambaram gave enough indications that he was willing to take as many queries on inflation as possible knowing that now he could take the steam out of the criticism of rising prices with the inflation coming down to a tolerable level of 5.06 per cent.
   Ever since the inflation crossed the alarming level of six per cent from September last year the UPA government in general and the Finance Minister in particular have been receiving the flak from the Opposition parties as well as from coalition partners and Left Parties, who are supporting the Manmohan regime from outside, for failing to rein in inflation.
   Now, with inflation falling to somewhat tolerable levels, Chidambaram seems be a happy man.

Aditya Raj Das

Sabotaging Sakshat
   Numbers do not always give you the truth. And, this point was proved again with Sakshat, the one-stop Education Portal of the Ministry of Human Resource Development.
   The Human Resource Department Ministry officials may be patting their backs as the portal got 1,18,152 hits since it was launched on January 26 this year.
   But as the story goes, most of the hits are coming from tutorial homes and private tutors as they feel it would save them the trouble of preparing lengthy notes for their students.
   As part of the Sakshat exercise, subject experts for Class XI and XII in Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Biology, English, Accountancy, Economics and Business Studies are available on net to answer the queries of students online.
   There are reports that since a student, who has access to internet, can solve problems in these subjects on his own as he can interact with experts on Sakshat, it may not go down well with the tutorial homes.
   Thus popularity of Sakshat may have an adverse effect on the business of tutorial homes.
   And there are reports that tutors often prod students to ask meaningless questions.
   “We get MA standard questions from Class X students. Surely, some one else is prompting them to put forth such questions and this is sheer wastage of time,” a Sakshat teacher said.

Shruba Mukherjee