-TheWire.in While the announcement and achievement are significant, it must be noted that electrification of villages does not translate into electrification of households and is certainly no guarantee for power availability. New Delhi: After missing the initial deadline of May 2017, the Narendra Modi government announced on Sunday morning that the electrification of all inhabited villages in India has been completed. While the announcement and achievement are significant, it is still largely symbolic...

-The Times of India GURGAON: The Haryana government has kicked off a row by circulating an admission form in government and private schools across the state that seeks to know if the student suffers from genetic disorders or whether the parents are engaged in any “unclean occupation”. The form with 100 sub-heads given to students across the state, including Gurgaon, also seeks Aadhaar and PAN numbers, religion, caste, income and bank account...

-The Hindu There is no way the country can reap its demographic dividend without fixing vocational education Salvaging the Indian demographic dividend must be a key part of India’s growth story. In 2016, the Government of India formed the Sharada Prasad Committee to rationalise the Sector Skill Councils (SSCs), which are employer bodies mostly promoted by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the Confederation of Indian Industry and other...

-The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy Menstrual hygiene, an essential building block of a woman’s health, suffers wanton neglect in India’s public discourse. Though public policies are in place, the progress made by India’s government, private, and civil society sectors is not in sync with the nation’s aspiration to be a global economic superpower. R. Sujatha, consultant on gender issues, and R. Gopinath, development economist, critique the steps taken,...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: A parliamentary panel has criticised the government over the "decreasing" budgetary allocation for school education in terms of its share of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the tardy progress in setting up Navodaya schools. In terms of the GDP share, the allocation has been declining for the past five years. The allocation of Rs 50,000 crore for 2018-19 is Rs 15,000 crore less than what the school...