2 September 2021
Trees under threat of extinction: 18% of India’s 2,603 tree species are threatened with extinction; the threats to trees include agriculture, logging, livestock farming, industrial activity and climate change
Consequences of the pandemic: with no school for 18 months, a learning and nutritional crisis has set back the poorest of children; remote learning, where available, is damaging overall growth, quality of studies and health; Some students have no phones, others have simply given up
Unrelenting unemployment: Over 1.5 million people from both the formal and informal sectors lost their jobs in August, reversing some of the gains made in July, as the unemployment rate rose in rural and urban India
Coal crisis: The mismatch of coal production and power generation has snowballed to a crisis that has led to a situation where 90 GW of thermal power plants have stock of just eight days left
The centralisation of education: Education experts argue that for true federalism, each state must have its own education policy; In the ‘70s, education was taken from the State List and put into the Concurrent List; With the National Education Policy of 2020, states are further losing their rights in service of centralisation