A voluntary mandate 

The introduction of an Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry (APAAR) ID by the Ministry of Education, to digitise the academic transcripts of every student, aims to ensure a "single source of truth" for all their records throughout their life in the aca-demic ecosystem in India. Linked with Aadhaar, APAAR is far from the first such step towards a rapid digitisation of school records in India: since the implementation of the National Education Policy, 2020, education authorities have pushed the Unified District Information System for Edu-cation Plus (UDISE+) and the Student Database Management Information System. In Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka, schools have been given an unambiguous target: 100% "saturation," or complete enrolment of all students. In their fervour to attain this target, schools have warned parents of consequences in the event of non-enrolment, and State education authorities have rattled their sabres at religious minority institutions and even at fellow administrators, alleging a mismatch of enrolment data between APAAR and existing records. 

A school closure that must be called out

The order to close down the only Gondi-medium school in a village of Maharashtra raises important questions. The school was started in Mohgaon village in the Fifth Schedule area of the Gadchiroli district, in 2019, as a result of a resolution by the gram panchayat, for tribal students to achieve better learning outcomes by imparting primary education in their mother tongue. This initiative was in consonance with Article 29 of the Constitution, which provides minorities the right to preserve distinct languages, scripts and cultures, and Article 350(a) which mandates that the state should make adequate provisions so that children of minority groups may receive instruction in their mother tongue. Non-recognition of the school is linked to the structural and socio-political subordination of the Adivasi communities owing to the normative bias of the state against their language and culture.

None of 1,275 gazetted posts filled in Ladakh in nearly six years: govt.

None of the 1,275 gazetted posts in Ladakh have been filled since the region became a Centrally administered territory in 2019, according to information provided by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to a parliamentary committee. "Recruitment Rules for 75 categories of gazetted posts, aggregating a total of 1,142 posts have been framed," the Ministry in-formed the department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs. Jobs and lack of employment opportunities were at the heart of protests witnessed by the Union Terri-tory in the past five years. Ladakh, comprising the Kargil and Leh divisions, had erupted in protests on several occasions since 2019 after the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the Constitution was revoked and the region turned into a Union Territory without

a Legislative Assembly.

Hike MGNREGS wages to match price rise: parliamentary panel

A parliamentary committee has strongly argued for the revision of wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in view of the rising cost of living. In its report tabled in the Lok Sabha, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development, headed by Congress MP Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka, also sought uniform wage rates across the country. Currently, the per day wages vary from ₹234 in Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh to ₹374 in Haryana and Sikkim. The panel ex-pressed disappointment that despite its multiple re-commendations on this matter over the years, the government had not implemented any significant changes.

Centre sanctions 116 new tourist spots across the country

The Centre has sanctioned 116 new tourist destinations across the country under various schemes in partnership with State governments which would be developed at a cost of ₹4,088 crores. Out of these, 34 have been sanctioned under the Swadesh Darshan 2.0 scheme, 42 have been identified under the "Challenge Based Destination Development (CBDD)", a sub-scheme of Swadesh Darshan, and 40 would be developed under Special Assistance to States for Capital Investment (SAS-CI). The Swadesh Darshan scheme aims to develop sustainable and responsible tourism destinations by focusing on theme-based circuits and providing financial assistance to State governments for infrastructure development. The scheme was revamped as Swadesh Darshan 2.0 (SD2.0) with the objective to develop sustainable tourism destinations.

Aditya-L1 mission: scientists observe a flareless coronal mass ejection

The Aditya-L1 mission is India's first scientific mission dedicated to studying the sun and the VELC pay-load was developed by the Bengaluru-based IIA. Scientists associated with the IIA said that using the VELC payload, it was possible to observe the corona not only closer to where its base is located in the solar atmosphere, but also obtain data at shorter time intervals compared with other existing corona-

graphs in orbit.