-Hindustan Times According to the data, as many as 29.6 million students from 19 states and five UTs were found to be without digital devices during the surveys conducted by these states and UTs. A report released by Union education ministry on Wednesday said that 29 million school students do not have access to digital devices as per data collected from 24 states and Union Territories (UTs) until June -- data that...

-Hindustan Times The Union environment ministry has come out with a consultation paper on amending the Forest Conservation Act 1980 to bring significant changes to forest governance in India including facilitating private plantations for harvesting and exploration or extraction of oil and natural gas deep beneath forest land by drilling holes from outside the forest areas. Here are the highlights of the environment ministry’s proposal: Forests on private land Until December 1996, provisions of...

-Hindustan Times The country has to develop and adopt more efficient crop production techniques along with favourable marketing policies and price support mechanism. The lack of an assured market is the main reason for the poor availability of pulses India is the largest producer of pulses. Since the population has low-income levels and people are largely vegetarian, pulses provide good quality protein, and they contribute significantly to the nutritional security of the...

-Hindustan Times Around 250 residents of Chhattisgarh’s Hasdeo Arand started a march from Surguja district to Raipur, around 330 kilometres away, on Monday demanding cancellation of all coal mining projects in their region.  Environmentalists and activists are also taking part in the march. “The representatives of all 30 villages of Hasdeo Arand ... are part of this padayatra (foot march) demanding justice from state and Central government by cancelling all coal mining projects...

-Hindustan Times The BJP leadership has explicitly instructed the cadre to reinforce that the ongoing farm protests are “motivated” and an attempt to “destabilise” the country, a party functionary claimed The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has redoubled efforts to distance the farmer protests from the farm issues ahead of elections in states such as Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, where the demand from a section of farmers’ for repealing the farm laws enacted...