-The Hindu “Merely read out a ‘consensus’ statement on the final day of the COP conference’ Rebutting allegations that it had weakened the Glasgow climate pact by having the final text of the agreement read that coal would be “phased down” instead of “phased out,” Indian officials said it had merely read out a ‘consensus’ statement agreed to by all countries on the final day of the COP conference. India, the U.S., and...

-The Hindu Conducts searches in 14 States and Union Territories In a major crackdown on online sexual abuse of minors and circulation of child pornographic material, the CBI has registered 23 new cases against 83 accused persons. It also conducted searches across 14 States and Union Territories. The CBI has so far identified more than 50 groups, comprising over 5,000 offenders, who shared child sexual abuse material. Several of these groups had foreign...

-The Hindu Yawning gap between States in access to online education, says the study. The percentage of rural children who were not enrolled in school doubled during the pandemic, with Government schools seeing an increase in enrolment at the expense of private schools, according to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2021. Over a third of children enrolled in Classes 1 and 2 have never attended school in person. However, enrolment does...

-The Hindu Business Line Against postponing resolution and plans to expand provisions for LDCs alone India is resisting attempts by developed nations to “draw a wedge” between developing countries and LDCs in the ongoing negotiations for subsidising public stockholding programmes at the WTO, under the garb of offering an early resolution, and has asked poorer nations not to fall into the trap. “At the WTO agriculture committee on Monday, some developed nations, such...

The increase in the total number of suicides committed in India during 2020 in comparison to the previous years has hit the headlines recently. While some media commentators have stated that the economic distress (caused by job loss, income loss, failure of business, and growing hunger, among other things) in 2020 could have led to more suicides being committed, others have said that home isolation and deteriorating mental health (associated...