Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal (extreme right) inaugurating the Central University at Tiruvarur in the presence of Chief Minister M Karunanidhi

THANJAVUR/TIRUVARUR: The future universities of India should be radically different and evolve into centres of excellence to meet global challenges, Union Minister of Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal said on Wednesday.

Mumbai: Here

New Delhi: After the euphoria comes the real test. The cost of implementing the Right to Education Act over the next five years by the Centre and states works out to a whopping Rs 1.78 lakh crore.

The new law will come into force from the next academic year and since education is now a fundamental right, it is mandatory on the part of the government to provide what is demanded.

I am extremely happy to note that this year, India Today State of the States Conclave has decided to keep agriculture at the top of its agenda. The topic, "Second Green Revolution: What the States Need to Do", is extremely appropriate though I would modify it slightly to read "Second Green Revolution: What the Nation Needs to Do".

It has become an annual confluence of ideas and ideology, a high-powered forum where Union ministers, chief ministers and those in charge of key ministries in strategic states meet to debate the hot-button issues of the day as well as discover the true state of their states.

If statistics are any indicator of India's economic health,we are a country of stunning diversity.

Only 5 in 30 states have an urban population of over 50 per cent. These are Delhi, Puducherry, Goa, Mizoram and Tamil Nadu.

Democracy," Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi once said, "is the art and science of mobilising the entire physical, economic and spiritual resources of various sections of the people in the service of the common good of all."

Sikkim is a small state with big dreams. It has set a target to become a poverty free, illiteracy-free, disease-free, zerounemployment state by 2015. The challenges are tough and the target date is just a few years away. But the state Government is optimistic.

If you want to rank states, there are two broad roads to follow. First, you can administer questionnaires and respondents' reply to specific questions. However, this route presumes that respondents know about all the states you wish to rank. Typically, that doesn't happen. Respondents know about states they operate in (or are located in). Second, you can use objective data.