-The Indian Express This is according to data obtained from the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS), which oversees all KVs in the country, by The Indian Express under the Right to Information Act (RTI). Admissions to Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs) across the country under the discretionary quota of the Minister of Human Resource Development (HRD) in 2018-19 have surged more than 20-fold compared to 2014. And admissions to KVs under the Minister’s discretionary...

-Hindustan Times It has also exempted projects with a proposed capacity expansion up to 40% from the requirement of public consultations, with certain riders. In a move that could turn out to be a bonanza for the mining and infrastructure sectors, the environment ministry is considering a number of relaxations in the environment impact assessment (EIA) process that is carried out for Development projects, including mining, before they are given the go-ahead. In...

-The Indian Express 'Developing Asia' refers to a group of 45 countries that are members of the ADB The economic outlook update released by the Asian Development Bank last week highlighted that the number of urban inhabitants in ‘Developing Asia’ has increased “almost five-fold since 1970”. The report, tracking World Urbanisation Prospects data, also states that the two-thirds of the nearly 1.5 billion additional city dwellers in the region belonged from...

-The Hindu The campaign to end open defecation can succeed only if it takes communities with it India’s declaration on the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi that its rural areas are now open defecation-free will be acknowledged around the world as a milestone in its Developmental journey. Cleanliness and sanitation were central to Gandhi’s concerns for his vast number of impoverished countrymen, and should ideally have been pursued zealously by governments...

-Hindustan Times The society runs 268 social welfare schools providing free education, food and clothes to nearly 1.5 lakh children from Class 5 to under-graduate courses. Hyderabad: The success story of residential schools being run for students belonging to marginalised sections by the Telangana government has been chosen as a case study for the prestigious Harvard University in the United States of America. A communication to this effect from Harvard University was received...