-The Hindu Students without background will get BRIdge courses, says AICTE Prospective engineering students will not have to mandatorily study Maths and Physics in Class 12, according to new norms released by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) for 2021-22. Council Chairperson Anil Sahasrabudhe defended the changes on Friday, saying they are in line with the multi-disciplinary approach of the new National Education Policy. Till now, only those who opted for Physics...

-The Hindu Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development slams government laxity in raising amounts. The Centre must increase the “meagre” pensions provided for poor senior citizens, widows and disabled people, said the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development in its report submitted to the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. The panel also slammed the government’s “laxity in raising the amount, pointing out that recommendations to increase the sums have been made for the...

-The New Indian Express The total number of CAG reports relating to central government ministries and departments came down from 55 in 2015 to just 14 in 2020, a fall of nearly 75%. NEW DELHI: The number of reports brought out by the country’s top audit body, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, has come down sharply in the past five years, raising concerns that the government’s financial accountability is not...

-Down to Earth Monthly investment of 0.07-0.31% of a developing countries’ GDP can provide financial security to 613 million working-age women living in poverty A temporary basic income (TBI) for poor women in developing countries can help millions of them cope with the effects of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, according to United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) findings released on March 4, 2021 ahead of International Working Women’s Day.   The large-scale...

When a massive sum of public money is spent on a programme like Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (MGNREGA)--a demand-driven programme, there is likelihood of financial misappropriations and mismanagement. Thankfully there are checks and balances in the rural employment guarantee legislation to counter such malpractices. It is worth noting that the total allocation under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (MGNREGA) for 2020-21 was Rs. 1,11,500.00 crore (R.E.), up...