-The Hindu Of the country’s 217 million children, nearly 50% endure multidimensional poverty, says Oxford survey About 31% of the world’s “multidimensionally poor” children live in India, according to a new report by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), a poverty reduction project grounded in economist Amartya Sen’s ‘capability approach’. “In terms of countries, fully 31% of the 689 million poor children live in India, followed by Nigeria (8%), Ethiopia (7%)...

-PTI May 23 notification not “to influence food habits, or affect slaughtering business”, the Union Environment Minister says. The government on Sunday said it was open to suggestions from various groups on the May 23 cattle slaughter notification and was not viewing it as a prestige issue. Speaking to reporters here, Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan said the intention behind the notification was not to harm any particular group, influence food habits or affect...

-The Hindu Deny Maharashtra Chief Minister’s claim that strike has been called off. Mumbai: Unanimously agreeing to continue the farmers’ strike in Maharashtra, a core committee meeting in Nasik on Sunday decided to call a State-wide bandh on Monday, excluding Mumbai. Farmers began their strike on Thursday demanding farm loan waiver and support price for their produce. In a meeting with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday morning, a section of farmer leaders...

-PTI To curb charging of “unreasonable” fees and levying of “hidden” costs, the CBSE has sought data from private schools about their fee structure and increase carried out in recent years. The move comes weeks after the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) warned private schools against turning into “shops” by selling uniform and books in their premises. “We have told the schools that they should not charge unreasonable fees. The charges should...

-The Hindu While sanitation schemes in India date back to the British Raj, Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) is the latest and by far most ambitious iteration. Launched by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the end of 2014, the Rs.9,000-crore scheme aims to achieve an Open Defecation-Free (ODF) India by constructing 12 million rural household toilets across the country before October 2, 2019 — to coincide with Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birthday. But...