PT Usha’s day out as Rajya Sabha Vice-Chairperson

Sprinter PT Usha on Wednesday chaired the sitting of the RS for about an hour. Members applauded her when Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar took a break and his chair was occupied by the retired athlete, who is among the eight members in the panel of Vice-Chairperson of the Upper House. TNS

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Green approval for key road projects

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, through an amendment notification issued on July 14 last year, exempted highway projects of strategic and defence importance from prior environment clearance. This was stated by Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday in response to a question by Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi. TNS

US top destination for higher education

The US remains the top priority for Indian students to pursue higher education. As many as 1.95 lakh students went to the USA for higher studies last year. It was revealed by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday in reply to MP Jose K Mani. The US is followed by Canada and UK. TNS

IT exports stood at $178 bn in 2021-22

The export of information technology products stood at a whopping $178 billion (Rs 14.5 lakh crore) for the 2021-22 fiscal, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology told the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. The data was provided by the National Association of Software and Service Companies. TNS

Take more women in police, states told

The government on Wednesday informed the Rajya Sabha that the Ministry of Home Affairs had issued multiple advisories to states to increase the representation of women in their police force to 33 per cent, but their actual strength as on January 1, 2022, stood at 11.75 per cent, with Ladakh having the highest percentage of 28.3.