-The Hindu For growth to go forward, it must be environmentally and socially concordant. The launch of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and agreements in Paris finally signalled the realisation that we can no longer achieve our economic ambitions by endangering the environment and society. But even as countries agreed on the need to nurture sustainability, it has come under fire from the mistaken notion that doing so will slow the pace...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The first ever survey of learning achievement of class X students has shown that majority of the states/Union Territories are performing below the overall average score in all subjects. The survey by NCERT was done with a sample of 2.77 lakh students in 7,216 schools across 33 states/UTs. NCERT is also putting in place a system whereby feedback from surveys will be given to states, examination...

-Business Standard Govt should revamp agricultural marketing to increase farmers' earnings and amend land-leasing laws Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has met farm sector representatives for pre-Budget consultations at a time Indian agriculture is passing through a bad patch - especially because of two years of consecutive drought. Predictably, therefore, most participants pitched for more credit on soft terms, higher minimum support prices (MSP) for crops and the expansion of irrigation facilities to...

-The Indian Express The seeming revival over the last two quarters reverses the trend of declining employment under MGNREGA seen during the first year of the Modi government. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, the flagship welfare programme of the previous UPA government, appears to be staging a revival of sorts. And this turnaround is being attributed mainly to better monitoring by the Centre and timely release of funds. The July-September...

-The Times of India MYSORE: With the Centre taking multiple measures to fulfill its clean Ganga mission, the country's premier atomic research body - Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) - has offered membrane-based water treatment system to clean the national river. The department of atomic energy (DAE) in its presentation on Monday at the Indian Science Congress gave details of the system, describing how BARC is already providing technical support to the...