-The Hindu Child Rights Commission tells SC that 1.47 lakh children lost a parent during the pandemic The Supreme Court is worried for children, some as young as six year old, whose parents suddenly died of COVID-19, leaving behind unpaid debts, mortgages, loans and insurance premiums. The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has so far identified 1,47,773 children who have lost one parent and another 10,600 who have become orphans...

-The Hindu There are many indices of proof that seriously contradict the tall claims of employment generation in India Reports on and the visuals of the recent agitations by railway job applicants reveal a widespread problem of massive job insecurity among India’s youth. Alarming figures of unemployment have been recurrent even before the huge dislocation unleashed by lockdowns imposed in 2020-21 in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Much before the pandemic,...

-Down to Earth With sustainable development goals in place, increasing democratisation and connectivity of the world, ecologisation of politics and vice-versa will become the new norm Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai wrote: In a few decades, the relationship between the environment, resources and conflict may  seem so obvious as the connection we see today between human rights, democracy and  peace. Decreasing resource base and the  struggle for control and power leads to politicising ecological issues...

-Newsclick.in Academics say the new draft framework of UGC does away with the necessity of master’s in arts and sciences and dilutes the undergraduate programme. After much speculations, University Grants Commission (UGC), the regulatory authority for central universities in the country, released its draft curriculum framework for four-year undergraduate programmes and the stakeholders can submit their comments till April 4, 2022. The final framework will be put in place to be taught...

-The Telegraph The story of a reversal that may yet rescue Indians from being hungry and undernourished I first tasted kodo, a coarse foodgrain, when I was barely seven. It was at the home of our Adivasi domestic help in Piska, a roadside railway station near Lohardaga in what was then southern Bihar. The porridge she cooked with kodo, jaggery and a bit of salt tasted much better than the gruel I...