-The Hindu The increase in temperature would reduce the quality of harvested wheat since it thrives in cold weather Unusual warm weather conditions, accompanied by a prolonged dry spell in Punjab and Haryana have left farmers and experts anxious, who fear that prevailing climate conditions would not just harm the quality of the ready to harvest wheat crop, but could also delay and increase the cost of cultivation for sowing cotton, the...

-The Hindu 144 institutions were de-empanelled Non-genuine 18,606 hospital transactions were detected in the Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) with penalty amounting to Rs.29.72 crore being levied on erring hospitals. Also 144 hospitals were de-empanelled from the scheme based on confirmed fraudulent behavior, said the Health Ministry in its reply to the Parliament in the recently concluded session. The Ministry added that the National Health Authority (NHA)—the implementing agency...

-The Hindu Post-COVID learning for children should be accelerated, says World Bank’s Global Director for Education Jaime Saavedra. World Bank’s Global Director for Education Jaime Saavedra was in India last week to meet Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and governments of Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh to discuss concerns over learning losses for children due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the need for concerted efforts to bridge these gaps. In a sit-down interview...

-Economic and Political Weekly In this response to Chris J Perry and M Dinesh Kumar’s critique of the authors’ co-authored paper, “Water and Agricultural Transformation in India: A Symbiotic Relationship —I” by Mihir Shah, P S Vijayshankar and Francesca Harris (EPW, 17 July 2021), the authors seek to respond to a distortion of their views as well as what they claim is a ridiculing of powerful solutions to India’s water and...

-The Hindu “The current version of the text added new burdensome conditions that would impose additional limits on countries using non-voluntary licensing” Six experts from India, South Africa and the United States have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reject the current version of a proposal at the World Trade Organisation on intellectual property waivers for COVID-19 medicines, that includes vaccines, drugs and diagnostics. In October 2020, at the WTO’s Trade Related...