-Down to Earth The highest percentage of children under three who were breastfed within one hour of birth was registered in Meghalaya, followed by Lakshwadeep, Kerala and Mizoram   The number of women breastfeeding their newborns within an hour declined in the last five years, according to the recent National Family Health Survey (NFHS). The women in urban regions of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli along with Bihar, Gujarat, Sikkim,...

-Down to Earth Alcohol consumption among women aged 15 years and above highest in north-eastern states Five years since the sustainable development goals of the United Nations came into force, we ask ourselves: How is India and its states progressing towards the goals directly dealing with tobacco (SDG 3.a) and alcohol (SDG 3.5) use? These are critical goals, not only because the aspects they deal with are well evidenced in proving detrimental to...

-The Hindu Agriculture Ministry officials say no timeline reached to amend the ordinance on stubble burning. Despite reaching an agreement on exempting farmers from the penal provisions of stubble burning under an ordinance on air quality in the capital, the Centre does not plan to take action until all other issues with protesting farmers groups are also resolved. Asked about the timeline to amend the ordinance, Agriculture Ministry officials noted that only...

-The Hindu In the farm laws debate, the focus should be on the exchequer-farm subsidies issue and the spending on farm subsidies In the on-going debates around the three new pieces of agricultural legislation and the farmers’ demand for continuation of minimum support prices (MSP), questions have often been raised whether the government should be using the taxpayers’ money to provide subsidies to the farming community in this country. However, logically, two...

-Newsclick.in Unemployment has inched up to over 9% as the year ends and the so-called economic recovery is a mirage. For Indians, 2020 will go down in history as the worst year for livelihoods and incomes. Unemployment levels rose to record highs, incomes plummeted to record lows and such was the scale of deprivation that thousands of families teetered on the brink of starvation. Tragically, this was not just the pandemic. It...