-The Hindu ‘Her experience includes a South Asian perspective with its many challenges’ Noted environmentalist Sunita Narain has been appointed to an international advisory group for climate action by Swedish Minister for International Development Cooperation Per Olsson Fridh. The international group consists of experts who provide a “deep commitment and Knowledge in the field”, said a statement issued after the announcement. “I am happy that Sunita Narain of the Centre for Science and...

-TheNewsMinute.com The spirit of mandatory reporting does not always translate to what survivors, faced with a hostile society and complicated legal system, need in reality. The recent allegations of sexual abuse of children spanning years in many reputed Chennai schools have shocked many, but it has also revealed how difficult it is to navigate institutional abuse. In many cases, the survivors are now adults. This has also brought to light a contentious...

-The Indian Express In a nation where access to education remains a fundamental issue and where an individual’s success largely depends on access to resources, shaped by socio-economic and caste advantages, 'merit' is just another form of discrimination. While a public health crisis grips the nation, the recent incident at IIT Kharagpur where a professor named Seema Singh at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences allegedly made casteist slurs during a...

-Financial Express If patents continue to determine global access to vaccines and drugs, then fighting Covid-19 will remain a distant dream for most countries Vaccines are badly required by the world, as are drugs like Remdesivir and Tocilizumab, and medical equipment like ventilators and oxygen concentrators. A large number of countries, particularly low- and middle-income ones, are struggling to access vaccines, drugs and equipment. There cannot be a more important occasion than the...

-The Hindu 12-member team to go beyond present crisis, prepare road map for transparent budgeting with States The Supreme Court has constituted a 12-member National Task Force to streamline and ensure the “effective and transparent” allocation of liquid medical oxygen on a “scientific, rational and equitable basis” to States and Union Territories fighting COVID-19. The apex court had expressed its dissatisfaction at the Centre’s earlier “oxygen-for-bed” formula. This “rough-and-ready” arrangement, as the court...