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Welcome to Patna, a city that in its own strange way has married the free market to the classroom. The arrests of several peoples for leaking the question papers for the Common Admission Test for entry to the Indian Institutes of Management are only the tip of the iceberg.

In a decision intended to curb the widespread sale of seats in professional colleges, India's Supreme Court has ordered that private institutions may no longer demand the "donation" of extra, upfront fees from new students. Medical and engineering colleges now demand upfront payments of tens of thousands of dollars, from students whose test scores do not qualify them for places.

Two-member team of the Gujarat University has found that the management of the Arts and Commerce College, Pipariya, and the SMT D V Bhagat Science College, had allegedly passed students by charging hefty amounts from them.

As part of its campaign to end corruption in education, a militant group in north eastern India is trying to force professors to conduct courses in their classrooms instead of at private tutoring sessions.

A petition has been sent to the Indian authorities pointing out that more than 5 lakh of primary school students in West Delhi have had no school lunch for two months; it denounces an inappropriate use of public resources.

A survey undertaken by Transparency International revealed that the education sector is heavily affected by corruption, being at least the third most corrupt public service. It is proposed that citizens' charters be prepared for improving public servants' accountability.

Fees for manipulating entrance test scores are between $80 to $20 000 for the most popular programs, such as computer science, medicine or engineering. Many feel the only way to clean up the system is to expand educational opportunities.

In 1998, the education watchdog group from Bombay, the Forum for Fairness in Education, won a landmark case that clamped down on secretive admissions practices. The court ruled that all colleges and universities must make entrance-examination scores public, to ensure that admissions are based on merit, and not money passed under the table.