NEWS

An association of all India private educational institutions has approached the Madras high court challenging the Tamil Nadu government’s decision to grant only temporary recognition to schools.

Right to establish an educational institution is a fundamental right and restricting and forcing the institutions to beg for recognition every year amounts to an unreasonable restriction, the association said.

Admitting the plea, Justice M Dhandapani directed the school education department to file its response in two weeks.

The fear that 10% reservation for the Economically Weaker Sections as a whole may be scrapped by the Supreme Court led to the Centre tamely submitting that it will review the eligibility income ceiling of Rs 8 lakh for the quota catering to mostly the upper castes.

While the Supreme Court had focused on how could the income ceiling for OBC reservation and the EWS quota be the same at Rs 8 lakh, the implied question of parity between the two quotas was up for argument.

Seemingly similar, the Rs 8 lakh ceiling for OBC and EWS is different. The one for EWS is more stringent as it includes income from all sources including “salary”, while the income ceiling for OBC does not include “salary” and “agricultural income”. This is a key difference that makes Rs 8 lakh for OBCs relatively liberal as compared to the EWS.

The capital of Manipur will be connected by rail in the next two years, taking the country’s railway network to barely 100 km from Myanmar border. This will become a new lifeline for Imphal, which is now primarily dependent on the road network for getting essential supplies.

Though the crucial 111 km Jiribam (Assam border) to Imphal new line project has been delayed due to several reasons, the Northeast Frontier Railway has now accelerated the work to complete it within the revised timeline.

This link is crucial as nearly 70% of Manipur's population lives in Imphal and at a later stage, this railway line may be extended till Myanmar border for the proposed Trans-Asian railway line.

A report by State Bank of India has called for a ‘National Disaster Pool’ to make good the economic loss arising out of natural calamities, which are increasing in number. The report has called upon the regulators and the government to come out with standardised products to plug the protection gap in each segment.

According to the report, India recorded 756 instances of natural disasters (such as landslides, storms, earthquakes, floods, and droughts) since 1900 with 402 events occurring during 1900-2000 and 354 during 2001-2021. “This indicates the preponderance of tail events off late. Since 2001, a total of 100 crore people have been impacted and nearly 83,000 people have lost lives due to these disasters,” the report said.