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A day after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee declared summer vacation for educational institutes from May 2 due to heatwave conditions, BJP MLA Sankhar Ghosh asked the TMC government to keep schools open in North Bengal and once again demanded separate statehood.

In a letter to state education minister Bratya Basu, Ghosh said that the climate in Siliguri and North Bengal is not as hot as in South Bengal.

“North Bengal is not reeling under heatwaves and the schools have opened after two years so the students should continue going to school. The schools in Darjeeling, Kurseung should not be closed,” said the BJP Siliguri MLA.

Amid the ongoing row in a Christian management-run school in Karnataka, state Education Minister BC Nagesh has claimed that Bible and the Quran are religious texts but the Bhagavad Gita is not as it speaks about the “values and life” and not religious practices.

The minister was reacting to a question about the government's proposal to introduce Bhagavad Gita in the school syllabus, even though religious books and practices cannot be introduced in schools registered under the Karnataka Education Act.

Bangalore Archbishop Peter Machado had also questioned the government's discriminatory policy allowing books of one religion in school while others are not.

For the third day in succession, there was power failure in Mumbai, with Mumbadevi, Bhuleshwar, and Shivaji Park being affected.

Demand in the city soared to a whopping 3,800MW on Thursday, from the usual 3,200-3,300 MW in summer.

Those parts of Mumbai serviced by the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) experienced outages at different times of the day, chiefly due to technical failures. In the morning, there were 15- to 20-minute disruptions in service in Shivaji Park, Dadar.

Cable and feeder faults resulted in these minor power cuts, sources said. In the evening the power cuts were for longer periods. Power tripped around 6.10pm, affecting Bhuleshwar, Mumbadevi, Marine Lines etc.

Two Made in India wheeled armoured combat vehicles have been sent to Indian troops deployed in UN missions abroad to patrol their areas of operations in UN peacekeeping missions in South Sudan.

"Reaffirming India's commitment to global peace and security, an Indian Army battalion equipped with indigenously developed State of the Art equipment, including QRFV M4 Armoured Personnel Carriers and TATA Xenon light vehicles, is being deployed for the first time in Abyei, South Sudan," Indian Army officials said.

The maiden induction cargo flight to Abyei, loaded with the first shipment of the wheeled APC & Xenon light vehicles, was seen off by senior officers, they said.

Maharashtra School Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad on Wednesday signed an MoU with Infosys for its ‘Springboard’ program which focuses on digital literacy and reskilling - this she announced via social media only.

Explaining further, she said that Infosys will be providing learning management systems for monitoring and delivering educational courses for teachers and students. Other than regular course material, students can access additional industry-oriented courses. Moreover, teachers can access courses for reskilling and upskilling.

"I've also urged the team @infosys to help our plans of augmenting digital infrastructure in our government schools. We've set up the Maharashtra State Education Technology Forum as an open platform for a free exchange of ideas on the use of technology to enhance learning and assessment," her statement further read.