-The Telegraph Unesco and Unicef advisories carry a huge significance for India, where the lockdown has triggered efforts to promote online teaching from primary school to universities New Delhi: Two UN agencies have warned against any large-scale shift towards online education, saying it would deepen socio-economic inequalities and warning that virtual platforms can leave children vulnerable to sexual exploitation. The Unesco and Unicef advisories carry a huge significance for India, where the lockdown...

-The Telegraph/ PTI Order issued to exclude non-essential items from cart The Centre on Sunday barred e-commerce firms from selling non-essential items during the lockdown, reversing its own four-day-old order that allowed online platforms to sell mobile phones, refrigerators and readymade garments. The dismay of the e-commerce companies and the jubilation among domestic traders, considered a traditional vote bank of the ruling BJP, suggested politics has forced the Narendra Modi government to take...

-The Indian Express Last week, the ICMR brought out an advisory on pooled testing, ideally in districts where incidence of COVID-19 is low. Faced with criticism about insufficient testing and the reality of limited resources, India has decided go for pooled testing in districts where no cases have been reported. This would on the one hand give data on whether these really are zero-case districts, and on the other, save resources. * What...

-TheWire.in Social policies almost always have multiple, often unintended, consequences. This feature came out sharply, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared a nationwide lockdown to arrest the spread of the novel Coronavirus without announcing an immediate or near-simultaneous relief package for India’s poorest. As the fight against COVID-19 unavoidably puts the livelihoods of millions at risk, an ugly truth of Indian society has come out in the open – namely, a large...

-Down to Earth Current industrial agriculture models drive habitat loss, create conditions for viruses to emerge and spread The novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has exposed a crisis in the global food system, the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food) — a panel of developmental economists, agronomists, nutritionists and sociologists from 18 countries — said in April 2020. The vulnerability of food systems to climate and disease-related disruptions was clear long...