-Financial Express The Met department, in its outlook for this month, has predicted hot and dry conditions for central India, a region that includes Gujarat and Maharashtra in the west and Odisha in the east, and is a ‘core heat zone’ in April. If the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD’s) prediction of a severe heat wave in April comes true, the country’s horticultural crops such as mangoes and lychees will be adversely impacted,...

-The Wire Science * Many regions in India, including the north and the centre, are currently reporting hotter weather thanks to heat waves. * The IMD has forecast ‘severe’ heat wave conditions for the next three days over parts of Rajasthan. Heat waves will also prevail over areas of Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Telangana. * According to the government, the IMD’s predictive power to forecast heatwaves has increased significantly over the years. Kochi: Many...

-Down to Earth Smaller cities of Bihar more polluted than the big cities in Delhi-NCR The average concentration of particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) in the cities of eastern India was the same as that in the cities of Delhi-NCR in the winter of 2021-22, according to a new report.  Parsed regionally, eastern India was over three times as polluted as southern India and 22 per cent more polluted than northern India from October...

-Newsclick.in Among 179 countries, India ranked 93 in the Liberal Democracy Index, and 100 in the Electoral Democracy Index, says V-Dem’s report. New Delhi: India has figured in the top 10 autocratising countries of the world along with El Salvador, Turkey and Hungary, and projections indicate that there will be a further decline in democracy in the country, according to a recent report released by the Sweden-based V-Dem Institute (Varieties of Democracy...

-The Hindu SDMC’s education panel chairperson issues instructions to prevent ‘religious attire’ in schools Officials of South Delhi Municipal Corporation-run schools have been instructed to ensure that no students come to class wearing any “religious attire”. The directions, issued by the civic body’s Education Committee chairperson Nitika Sharma (BJP) to the SDMC’s Director of Primary Education on Friday, have come following a controversy over a girl student being asked to remove her hijab...