Smaller Indian cities are leading rooftop solar adoption, with households in Lucknow, Nagpur, and Surat seeing reduced electricity bills. The Pradhan Mantri Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana has driven installations, benefiting over 44 lakh households, while major metros lag behind.
A UK government scheme, Finding Family, is helping young people leaving the care system build new relationships with trusted adults, including former foster families and support workers, to provide stability and support.
Hong Kong lawmakers have called for a rethink of a government scheme to develop homes for the elderly, days after the city’s second largest public housing provider revealed it would stop building homes targeting senior residents for the coming 10 years. Lawmaker Andrew Lam Siu-lo of the Legislative Council’s housing panel said on Monday that the government had not been proactive enough in formulating a comprehensive elderly housing policy, urging authorities to provide new incentives for...
More than 600 Hongkongers aged 60 and above have defaulted on student loans under five government schemes, with the Education Bureau recording 9,838 default cases involving HK$126 million as of January 31, 2026, up from 5,134 cases worth HK$96 million in 2025.
Health insurance coverage in India has surged over eight years, with rural areas now at 47.4% coverage surpassing urban areas at 44.3% in 2025. Government-sponsored schemes dominate, covering 45.5% of rural and 31.8% of urban populations. Average out-of-pocket hospitalization cost is Rs 34,064, while morbidity rates increased to 13.1% from 7.5% in 2017-18. Infections remain the top hospitalization cause at 20.7%, while institutional deliveries have reached 96%.
Hong Kong's three-year baby bonus scheme has disbursed only 57.5 per cent of its HK$2.28 billion allocation as of February, with the programme ending in October. Twenty couples have each received HK$60,000 for having three children, while the city's registered birth rate in the first two months of 2026 dropped 20 per cent year-on-year. A youth group leader attributed the decline to young people viewing parenthood as stress and sacrifice rather than hope and joy.
