THE debate on the best way to deal with school board exams – whether to hold exams, what should be the weighted assessments, the need for monitoring internal school assessments and so on has many interested participants and is being settled by the Supreme Court. But how relevant are these questions for poor students and specifically for adivasi students?In underdeveloped rural areas where the majority of adivasis live, there were just three per cent internet connections according to a household survey conducted a few years ago (ICE 360). Not many adivasi families have smart phones.

THE Modi-Shah duo are determined to fulfill their quest to change the essential character of J&K based on their Hindutva convictions.The meeting called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi of 14 political parties of Jammu and Kashmir was seen as an unusual step. After August 5, 2019 when the Modi government summarily nullified the special status of J&K under Article 370 of the constitution and dismantled the state into two union territories, a relentless effort was made to discredit the main political parties by detaining their leaders and branding them as corrupt and anti-national.

THE Economic Times of June 23, 2021 has reported that, in a blog posting “Reforms by conviction and incentives” on a social media site, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has claimed that “an innovative approach to policy making tempered by centre-state partnership during the Covid pandemic helped the states raise an extra Rs 1.06 lakh crore in 2020-21”.

THE Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) expressed dismay over the Rs 6.28 lakh crore stimulus package announced by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and said that it is nothing but yet another gimmick to hoodwink the people. It said that the measures announced under the package would neither provide the much needed relief to the crores of people whose livelihoods have been devastated during the second wave of Covid-19 nor can the package help in reviving the economy.

THE union rural development ministry has asked states for data on caste basis in the works of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). The ministry stated that the details of workers belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) sections should be mentioned separately. Since the inception of the scheme in 2006, there was no such circular from the central government to the states. For the first time employment under the scheme is being sought to be divided on caste lines, which reveals the real agenda of the BJP government.