-Down to Earth Andhra, Telangana have highest percentage of agricultural households under debt; Average debt: Rs 2.45 lakh in Andhra More than half of India’s agricultural households were in debt, with an average outstanding of Rs 74,121, according to the latest ‘Situation Assessment of Agricultural Households and Land Holdings of Households in Rural India, 2019’ released September 10, 2021. The percentage of households in debt, however, reduced slightly from 51.9 per cent as...

Remote teaching and learning promoted by Edtech companies as an alternative to physical classrooms, especially since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, may have a sizeable consumer base in our country. However, at the bottom of the pyramid, there are only a few takers of online education. In reality, class and caste-divide, which is more prominent in rural areas, affects access to digital learning. The majority of the school going...

-The Hindu No timeline for rolling out 4 labour codes yet Implementing the Code on Social Security, 2020 and bringing the maximum number of workers under the ambit of social security schemes were the top priorities of the government, according to Labour and Employment Minister Bhupender Yadav. Mr. Yadav told The Hindu on Tuesday that the focus on expanding social security schemes would be discussed during the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation’s meeting on...

-The Hindu 37% of rural children have dropped out, says report of study on 15 States The prolonged closure of primary and upper primary schools during the pandemic months has led to “catastrophic consequences” for school students, particularly in rural India, says an emergency report. Based on the School Children’s Online and Offline Learning (SCHOOL) survey conducted by researchers, who worked in coordination with eminent economist Jean Dreze, the ‘Emergency Report on School...

-The Hindu 2 health workers symptomatic, 188 contacts isolated KOZHIKODE: After a gap of over three years, a case of the zoonotic Nipah virus infection was reported in Kozhikode district of Kerala on Sunday morning, with the death of a 12-year-old boy from Pazhoor, near Chathamangalam, at a private hospital. State Health Minister Veena George told the media that a contact list of 188 persons, a majority of them healthcare workers, had been...