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Dear Reader,
Since the pandemic struck about two years ago, more than 150 million students have entered India’s EdTech sector. Aggressive marketing and an impression of ‘excellence’, created by the EdTech companies, have fired the aspirations of Indian parents who have been drawn to it in droves.
However, as The Bastion explains, the students’ experience, and the quality of education they have received, have belied the promises made in the slick advertisements and marketing of the companies. Therefore, the time has come, it says, for the government to institute a regulatory framework that protects the interests of all stakeholders in the sector, particularly students, parents and teachers.
The Centre and the states have been seeking to push local entrepreneurship and start-ups in the small towns and villages of India through subsidised loan schemes – Mudra, One District One Product, etc. However, ThePrint travels to Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut and finds that far from the ambitions, the effort is floundering amidst stringent bank requirements, paucity of business skills and a lack of demand.
The State Board for Wildlife (SBWL) acts as the guardian of a state’s environmentally protected areas. However, in January last year, Karnataka’s SBWL decided to reject a proposal from the forest department to recognise Hesaraghatta -- a lush grassland and lake on Bengaluru’s north-western edge -- as a conservation reserve. Article 14 investigates and finds that appointments to the wildlife board have been arbitrary and motivated – "an MLA’s son, a mining baron, a paediatrician"!
And, seven months after the eviction drive in Assam’s Sipajhar district, which killed two and left several injured in September last year, EastMojo reports how close to 1,500 families evicted are struggling and staring at an uncertain future.
For more such stories from the grantees this week, please read on.
Warmly,
Sunil Rajshekhar
IPSMF
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