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It has sanctioned two major projects for expanding digital learning in Punjab and enhancing climate-resilient agriculture in Maharashtra, thereby benefitting over 60 lakh people of both states.

Cleared by the World Bank Board of Executive Directors on November 25, the programmes underscore India's rising reliance on technology to upgrade public services. The POISE programme in Punjab will deploy digital tools across the state's government schools to track and improve students' performance with loan size aggregating to USD 286 million. It covers 13 lakh students in primary classes and over 2.2 million students in secondary schools besides supporting early childhood education for near about 59 lakh children.

Second, the $490-million Maharashtra Project on Climate Resilient Agriculture or POCRA Phase II will scale up precision agriculture practices in smallholder agriculture. It will ensure more than 20 lakh small and marginal farmers, including 2.9 lakh women farmers, get digital systems in nutrient management, soil health and water-use efficiency, among other things. According to the World Bank, the interventions will improve climate resilience and increase incomes by about 30 per cent across 21 districts.

Digital Push Drives Development

According to Paul Proccee, Acting Country Director for the World Bank in India, these initiatives are in tune with the country's vision of "Viksit Bharat." He added that digital infrastructure continues to remain a catalyst for innovation, efficiency, and better outcomes in essential sectors like education and agriculture.

"These two projects will contribute towards India's vision of Viksit Bharat - through quality education for better jobs, and use of technology for increased crop productivity and improved livelihoods," said Proccee. The POISE loan has a final maturity of 19 years, including a five-year grace period, and the POCRA Phase II loan has a maturity of 24 years, with six years of grace. With the twin approvals, the World Bank renews its commitment to India's technology-led development model-one that plans to bring about measurable improvements in learning outcomes and agricultural productivity at scale.

Soaring to new global heights, the 3dsense Media School achieved the highest honour in digital art education by topping the Rookies Global School Rankings® 2025. Amongst leading schools around the world, it pitched for its position as part of a rigorous judging process of student work based on artistic ability, technical skill, and the complexity of projects. This latest recognition cements its decade-long reputation as Singapore's leading digital art school, ahead of its next intake.

Shaping Future Talent in a Changing Creative Landscape

The one thing certain with each passing year is uncertainty. The creator economy and traditional creative industries are being reshaped by increased pressures. In this climate of increasing questions regarding originality, ethics, and how long a career will last, 3dsense Media School comes clear-eyed about their aim to reshape worldwide creative education. From the humble beginnings of a community portal, the evolution into a specialist school in 2003 has resulted in thousands of graduates who contribute toward industries like films, games, animation, and commercial production.

Remaining at the Forefront of Global Digital Art Education

The results are informed by stringent portfolio reviews from industry professionals who help to validate the school's claims in producing graduates who can meet the real expectations of a studio. This standard is maintained through the many one-year diploma courses offered at 3dsense, which hasten up the learning process through immersive on-site training, production-based workflows, and mentorship from industry professionals. Be it the Diploma in 3D Animation or Game Arts, graduates come out with an industry-aligned portfolio, while total beginners can build core fundamentals through the structured four-month online foundation pathway. While the school continues to shape future-ready digital artists, 3dsense stays ahead with digital arts education in order to strengthen the creative talent pipeline in the region, driving new benchmarks in industry relevance, thorough training, and artistic excellence. 3dsense Media School Founded in 2003, 3dsense Media School is the best Asian creative institution that specializes in animation, visual effects, game art, motion design, concept art, and figurine design. With a heritage for innovation and excellence, 3dsense has constantly maintained a position at the top of the best creative institutions in the world because it empowers its students to succeed at the top studios across the globe.

Therefore, this new academic collaboration of the National Library of India and Dravidian University, Kuppam, will be a strong impetus to education and research in Library and Information Science in India, focusing on internship, research exchange, and capacity-building within the LIS sector.

The agreement inked today gives an opportunity to the students and scholars of Dravidian University to access arguably the richest repository of books, manuscripts, rare archives, and digital records in Asia. According to officials, the move has been put together with an aim to combine classroom learning with hands-on archival and documentation experience at the national level.

This MoU ensures that both institutions would collaborate in designing and developing research projects, training modules, techniques for preservation and digitization, and professional development programs for university staff within the new framework. Such a partnership would likely lead to upgrading academic standards, increasing employability among its graduates from the LIS programmes, while deepening engagement with knowledge management and archival science.

The agreement was thus signed on behalf of the DG, National Library of India, by Dr. Siva Prasad Senapathi, Principal Library & Information Officer, and by the Registrar of Dravidian University on behalf of the Vice Chancellor. Krishanu Chattopadhyay, Assistant Library & Information Officer, was also present there during the ceremony.

Officials said the partnership would mean a leap towards modernisation in the LIS education system in India, as the academic preparation would be oriented toward professional-real-life needs.

The learning crisis in the United States worsened this week, as new national test results showed a precipitous decline in basic math and reading skills among high-school seniors-the weakest performance recorded in nearly two decades. The results stirred widespread debate, including from Ohio governor candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who described the numbers as "the hard truth" and insisted it's up to the states to fix it.

The latest 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress gives a bleak picture of:

Only 22 percent of 12th graders show proficiency in math, the lowest score since the test was first administered in 2005.

45% of students score below the basic level, while 33% reach the basic mark.

Math scores have been sliding for years: 23 percent proficiency in 2005, briefly rising to 26 percent in both 2009 and 2013, falling back to 24 percent in 2019 before plunging this year.

Reading performance also fell to historic lows:

• 35% of seniors are proficient.
• 33% are at the basic level.
• 32% fall below basic.

Ramaswamy said the decline starts far sooner and cited statistics to back up that three out of four American eighth graders are not proficient in math, adding "the system does not recover in later grades."

India vs US: Learning gap widens

The worrisome US results have revived comparisons with India — which is continuing to record far higher success rates in core subjects right across Class 10 and 12 board examinations. Most major Indian school boards consistently report 70% or higher pass rates in mathematics and language subjects — though standards vary significantly across states.

Various structural differences stand out:

1. More Classroom Hours, Stronger Fundamentals: Students in India tend to spend more hours at school every week studying math, science, and language. The exam-centric system places a heavy emphasis on direct testing of core skills-a sharp contrast with the US, where broader curricula, variable state standards, and a lighter testing load often dilute subject-specific rigor.
2. According to ASER 2024,

• 98%+ of children between 6–14 years are enrolled in schools within India.
• 66-67% attend government schools.
• 30-31% are in private schools.

Experts say that broad access combined with structured instruction assures that Indian students maintain constant exposure to math and language fundamentals, something their American counterparts may not experience as consistently. 3. Both countries have some form of inequality, but the outcomes are different. While the quality of schooling may be very unequal, Indian students tend to get much stronger foundational teaching simply because their curriculum is more centralized and test-oriented. 

In the US, decentralization leads to uneven standards, putting less emphasis on basic skills mastery. Crisis with long-lasting impact Education experts say the collapse in senior-year proficiency comes with significant risks for the American workforce: fewer students will be prepared for the math and literacy demands of higher education, potentially weakening an already-strained pipeline into STEM careers. The Labor Department said the federal system has “failed students for many years,” a rare public admission of systemic breakdown.

For years, the warnings were treated as an occupational footnote, an ageing workforce here, a waning interest in number-crunching there. But the crisis engulfing America's accounting pipeline has matured into a structural fault line, as millions of baby boomer accountants prepare for retirement while firms struggle to recruit replacements. What was once dismissed as a tedious professional backwater is now re-emerging as a six-figure opportunity hiding in plain sight. According to Fortune, the exodus is unmistakable: Roughly 340,000 accountants have quit the industry in the past five years as reported by Fortune, drained by burnout, leadership churn at the IRS, and mounting policy fights. Worse, three-quarters of those still practising are projected to retire within the next decade, threatening to hollow out the core of a profession indispensable to a tax system growing more labyrinthine by the year. Against this bleak backdrop, a surprising cohort is stepping up, Gen Z.

Gen Z moves toward “America’s most boring job”

Accounting has long been suffering from a reputation problem. Research identifies it as the second-most stereotyped "boring" job in the United States. Yet the very generation accused of craving glamour is now discovering a critical truth: The work may be unglamorous, but the compensation and career stability are formidable. More importantly, the generation's response is not speculative. It is hands-on, labour-intensive, and deeply civic in spirit.

Half-century-old IRS program becomes a launchpad

The heart of this revival is the IRS's Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program, first established over 50 years ago at California State University, Northridge.

According to Fortune, the program has exploded in relevance. In 2024 alone:

More than 280 CSUN students helped taxpayers

More than 9,000 low-income Americans received free assistance

Nearly $11 million in refunds were claimed.

An additional $3.6 million in tax credits were secured

More than $2 million in preparation fees were saved

Students work grueling schedules, 10 am to 10 pm in the weeks before tax day, decoding the system for families who may not realize what they are owed.

And yet, the scale of unmet needs is staggering. Americans left $8.2 billion in Earned Income Tax Credits unclaimed in the 2021 tax year, Fortune notes. With 66% of Americans now living paycheck to paycheck, every recovered dollar carries the weight of necessity. A mission that resonates beyond business schools

Perhaps the most telling shift, however, is who participates. The pipeline is no longer restricted to accounting majors; students studying computer science, psychology, public health, and other disciplines are joining the program because of the tangible social impact and the growing clarity that financial literacy is no longer optional-it is survival.

Gen Z's embrace of the field reflects something deeper than workforce replenishment: It signals a generational re-evaluation of "boring" work-the essential, unglamorous labour that keeps financial systems functioning and households afloat.

A quiet, necessary rebuilding of America’s tax infrastructure

The accounting shortage is not just an HR problem for companies. It's a stress fracture in the architecture of American governance. The tax code is getting more complex; political fights over deductions, credits, and audits are getting more heated; and the IRS has suffered waves of leadership churn. But the professional corps charged with interpreting that complexity is shrinking. Which is not to say that the emergent role of Gen Z is a panacea. But it's the first visible signal that the profession's long-ignored crisis may find relief not through corporate recruitment drives but via a civic-minded generation reimagining its relationship with work. The work that holds everything together This revival of interest in accounting is less a comeback story than a coming-to-terms with economic reality. America's tax machinery requires a skilled and sizable workforce, and as boomers retire en masse, the mantle is falling to the youngest workers. Via programmes like VITA, Gen Z are gaining experience and restoring capacity but also rewriting perceptions of a field long dismissed as dull. In a country where everything, from health care to federal benefits, is ruled by complexity, their timely intervention is indispensible.

Uttar Pradesh govt finally started a crackdown on Nov 22. Four senior minority welfare officials—Joint Director SN Pandey, Ghaziabad DMO Sahitya Nikash Singh, Bareilly's Lalman, and Amethi's Prabhat Kumar—were suspended after being found complicit in facilitating Huda's illegal salary, unauthorized leave approvals, and retirement benefits on Saturday.

The move marks the beginning of what the officials term "one of the most extraordinary cases of administrative collusion, foreign-funded religious operations, and long-term radicalisation attempts" that have been unearthed in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

"It's one of the most shocking cases of systemic breakdown," said a senior official. "This wasn't an accidental oversight. This was an active collaboration."

An FIR was lodged under section 318(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for cheating and under relevant provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999, against Shamsul Huda Khan.

A Special Investigation Team is investigating his foreign travel history, NGO registration documents, bank and donation trails, and departmental approval files, besides communication between Huda and local officials. Sant Kabir Nagar's police officials have also written to ED for a probe.

Huda faces two more FIRs -- one in Azamgarh for cheating and forgery, another in Sant Kabir Nagar for concealing British citizenship and waging war against India.

The story begins in 1984, when Huda was appointed assistant teacher at a madrassa in Azamgarh. He continued teaching until 2007 - the year he quietly left for the UK. By 2013, he had acquired British citizenship.

But between 2007 and 2017, his salary continued to be deposited uninterruptedly in his account while he lived in the West. Medical leaves were sanctioned, GPF papers processed, service records updated, and finally in 2017 VRS was approved—consolidating his retirement benefits despite his absolute absence from duty.

According to investigators, the chain of approvals involves "deliberate negligence," "active manipulation of files," and "a decade-long conspiracy enabled by officials managing madrassa education in eastern UP." The financial loss to the state—around ₹16 lakh in salary alone—is only part of the story. What Huda was allegedly doing abroad is now a much bigger question.

Investigators say that he tried to "indirectly build ideological influence" in parts of eastern Uttar Pradesh by funding and managing religious institutions upon returning in 2017.

The ATS cited electronic religious lectures aimed at Indian audiences; unregulated foreign inflows into local madrassas and NGOs; efforts to disguise the source of donations; and use of religious platforms to promote "sect-based ideological expansion". This triggered further scrutiny — not just of Huda, but of the entire administrative chain that enabled him.

Huda shifted to India in 2017, set up Madrassa Kulliyatul Banatir Rajviya (Niswa) in Khalilabad, and founded two NGOs: Kulliyatul Banatir Rajviya Educational & Welfare Society and Raza Foundation.

The institutions functioned like an expanding ecosystem-foreign donations came in through several bank accounts, a girls' hostel functioned out of a rented house, students came in from Sant Kabir Nagar, Basti, Azamgarh, and other states-religious coursework packaged as welfare education.

But what bothered investigators was how quickly those buildings proliferated, and that donations often came from abroad. In early 2024, the government shut down his girls' madrassa over financial misdealing. Huda promptly opened another bearing the same name on an adjacent compound.

A second madrassa was sealed on November 3. Officials suspect that the campuses were "operational nodes" for both foreign fund inflow and influence-building activities. The ATS tracked the inflows going back several years, finding multiple small foreign contributions masked through NGO accounts and money rerouted from overseas donors to various religious institutions across eastern UP, a portion allegedly diverted as personal commission or unaccounted transactions. Institutions that received this money included Darul Uloom Ahle Sunnat Ashrafia Misbahul Uloom, Huda's old institution in Mubarakpur — now under scrutiny for its role in legitimising financial paperwork despite his long absence. Officials say the "money trail is only partially decoded," and the Enforcement Directorate may step in soon.