-Article-14.com Citing lack of data, India’s labour, railway, agriculture ministers have claimed no one died because of a Covid-19 lockdown imposed at a four-hour notice a year ago. That is not true. At least 989—likely an underestimate— people died between March and July 2020, as per a database built by volunteers New Delhi, Bengaluru, Atlanta (US): A year after the announcement of India’s Covid-19 lockdown on 23 March 2020,  the effects of...

-The Telegraph Jobless in lockdown, 54-year-old who speaks only Santhali started journey from Delhi in August Jamshedpur: Of the tens of thousands of hapless migrant workers who had set out to walk hundreds of miles home after the lockdown was announced, one reached his village on Saturday. Berjom Bamda Pahadiya arrived home at Amarbitha in Sahebganj district of Jharkhand on March 13 after a seven-month trudge from Delhi, 1,200km away, showing remarkable resilience...

-The New Indian Express The total number of CAG reports relating to central government ministries and departments came down from 55 in 2015 to just 14 in 2020, a fall of nearly 75%. NEW DELHI: The number of reports brought out by the country’s top audit body, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, has come down sharply in the past five years, raising concerns that the government’s financial accountability is not...

-The Indian Express Simultaneously, it has started a review of all model concession agreements — the legal contract that forms the basis of the public-private partnership — across four key infrastructure sectors: airports, ports, electricity and railways. AMID the unprecedented concentration of power in at least seven core sectors in corporate India, from pharma and telecom to airports and ports, the Competition Commission of India has launched a set of detailed investigations...

-Newsclick.in The farmers’ unions also rejected the government’s proposal to take the matter to the Supreme Court saying that “this is a political matter and it will be resolved politically”. New Delhi: “We will either die or win. We will return home only when you withdraw the (three) laws,” farmer leaders told the government in clear terms on Friday afternoon (January 8) during eighth round of talks held at Vigyan Bhawan for...