# EWS quota

• A government committee report in the supreme Court has said that ‘income’ is a, feasible criterion for defining the economically weaker section (EWS) in society.
• Report also mentioned that annual family income of 8 lakh rupees is a, reasonable threshold to determine EWS in order to extend reservation in admissions and jobs.
• The current criteria are likely to be retained this year.

# Census and NPR

• The first phase of the census and the collection of details to update the National population register (NPR) have been postponed at least till September.
• The registrar general of India had in December informed the states that the freezing of boundaries of districts, sub districts, tehsils, talukas and police stations had been postponed till june 2022.
• Freezing of boundary limits of administrative units, at least three months prior to the exercise, is a pre requisite for conducting the census.

# Open defecation free plus list

• Telangana stood first in the country in the list of highest number of open defecation free plus villages under the swachch bharat mission phase-II programme till December 31,2021.
• As many as 13,737 out of 14200 villages in the state are in the ODF plus list, which is 96.74℅.
• Tamil nadu followed with 4432 villages (35.38℅) and Karnataka with 1511 villages (5.58℅).
• The Telangana government has enacted a new Telangana panchayat raj act to ensure holistic development of villages.

# Taliban

• Hours after India announced Vaccine and wheat delivery for Afghanistan, the Taliban reiterated that Taliban will provide protection to diplomats from countries that wish to re-open closed embassies in Kabul.
• However, India is assessing the situation in Kabul and other big cities, which is not showing any improvement.