-Press release by National Coalition on the Education Emergency (NCEE) dated January 22, 2022 Schools in Bengaluru remain closed while malls, theatres, pubs and restaurants have been kept open. As of 21 January, the weekend curfew has been lifted as well. The decision to keep schools closed is having catastrophic consequences on children. Schools had only recently started opening after remaining mostly closed since March 2020. Their being closed again spells...

-The Telegraph One in every two persons tested for Covid-19 has been found positive over the past week One in every two persons tested for Covid-19 in Calcutta has been found positive over the past week with the city’s test positivity rate touching 55 per cent, the highest among 721 districts nationwide. Eleven other Bengal districts — Howrah, West Burdwan, East Burdwan, North 24-Parganas, South 24-Parganas, Birbhum, Malda, Darjeeling, Hooghly, Bankura and Purulia...

-The Telegraph The index includes 5 pillars comprising 41 indicators on the basis of which the states have been ranked for literacy among children. * The Index is aimed at understanding the overall state of foundational learning across children aged below 10 years in India * Chief minister Mamata Banerjee congratulates all teachers, guardians and members of the education department West Bengal has topped the ‘large states’ category in the Index on Foundational Literacy...

-Down to Earth Bathua is in demand for its nutrition and taste. Improved varieties of the weed can make it popular among farmers Come winters, and vegetable markets in Delhi are flooded with varieties of leafy greens. Among these vegetables is one hitherto unwanted weed, foraged from wheat fields. Commonly known as bathua in Hindi, cheel bhaji in Gujarati, paruppu keerai in Tamil, chandanbethu in Bengali and vastuccira in Malayalam, this weed is...

-IDROnline.org Natural resource management activities under NREGA have the potential to help India increase carbon sequestration and combat climate change. The world’s largest anti-poverty programme may also help India achieve its target of creating an additional carbon sink of 2.5-3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent, through additional forest and tree cover, by 2030, in line with the Paris Agreement on climate change. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) captured 102...