-The Hindu Thousands of Indian students travel out of the country for a basic medical degree simply because it is more affordable and less competitive “Wuhan is a beautiful place, you know,” says Vinod*, over the phone, as we talk about the plight of Indian medical students forced to return home two years ago after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. His stammer and long pauses reflect the anxiety that students and...

-Frontline.in A Parliamentary Standing Committee pulls up the Rural Development Ministry in its report on a “critical evaluation” of the MGNREGA and calls for more investment in the scheme. A Parliamentary Standing Committee report of the Ministry of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, tabled in February, strongly recommends enhancing the budget for implementation of work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, higher wage rates, and increasing the number...

-The Hindu The decimation of BSP has hurt the SP chief the most in polls, say observers For somebody who threw the kitchen sink at the Bharatiya Janta Party during the election campaign, it has been a humbling loss for Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh. Observers said everybody knew that nobody could defeat the BJP on the Hindutva pitch but Mr. Yadav got a ‘godsend opportunity’ in the form of...

-Newsclick.in Prison occupancy in India has been on the rise over the past five years with overcrowded jails struggling to cater to the needs of prisoners. Experts point to the mass incarceration of pre-trial prisoners. Following an increase in prison overcrowding in India, critics are calling for new reforms to the judicial process, to decrease the length of trials and reduce the number of inmates. Three out of every four people held in...

-Hindustan Times Overall, the enrolment of students in classes from pre-primary to higher secondary dipped by 77,585, showed the report released on Wednesday Close to four million students shifted to government-run schools in the 2020-21 academic year, according to a new ministry of education report, which captures how the pandemic affected learning and access to learning during a period when classes went virtual and millions of parents are believed to have lost...