-Down to Earth The number should be reduced from the current 169 targets A development expert, Morten Jerven, has estimated that the world might end up spending close to $250 billion just to monitor UN development goals for 2030. In a report, Jerven proposes that governments should cut down the number of targets from the current 169 to avoid over-spending. According to Reuters, world leaders will set new sustainable development objectives-such as improving...

-Press Information Bureau/ Ministry of Labour & Employment The Union Minister of Labour & Employment, Steel and Mines, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar announced the launch of a guaranteed minimum pension of Rs 1000 per month under Employees' Pension Scheme, 1995. Speaking to journalists at a press conference in here today, he said, the Union Government has decided to organize functions in every office of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation spread across...

-The Indian Express The Rajasthan government is planning two significant amendments to the Right to Education (RTE) Act: reintroducing exams in at least three classes from Class I to 8, and giving more weightage to "learning outcomes" than to physical infrastructure of schools while deciding on their recognition or registration. A senior Rajasthan government official told The Indian Express that during Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje's "sarkar apke dwar" programme, parents suggested that...

-The United Nations If all women in poor countries completed primary education, child mortality would drop by one-sixth saving almost one million lives, the United Nations educational agency today reported highlighting the links between schooling and achieving a new set of sustainable development targets. "The benefits of education permeate all walks of life right from the moment of birth," said Irina Bokova, Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)...

In the midst of irregular monsoons affecting agriculture, a new report shows stagnation in the state of irrigation infrastructure. The recent report entitled Infrastructure Statistics 2014 (Third Issue) by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has provided information that despite the rise in expenditure on irrigation infrastructure, there has been no substantial improvement in the gross irrigation potential utilized*. Athough expenditure on irrigation has increased from Rs. 36561.64 crores...