-The Indian Express Maharashtra is staring at a shortage of both beds and vaccines. With the state estimated to record around 60,000 new cases daily for next few days, a bed shortage may just be 7-10 days away. Ahead of the Prime Minister’s meeting with Chief Ministers on managing the Covid-19 surge, a look at some states, their issues with beds and vaccines, and their demands of the Centre. Odisha Odisha only has three...

-The Hindu Business Line Large inter-State variations in funding, shortcomings in quality of care and neglect of urban health continue to haunt the sector Since Independence, India has made some notable gains on the health front. For instance, life expectancy at birth has increased, infant mortality and crude death rates have fallen steeply, diseases such as smallpox, polio and guinea worm have been eradicated, and leprosy is on the verge of getting...

-The Hindu In the post-pandemic world, addressing inequality is key to sustaining growth and well-being COVID-19 in the last one year has once again reminded us of the growing inequalities in India. A recent Pew Research Report shows that India’s middle class may have shrunk by a third due to the novel coronavirus pandemic while the number of poor people earning less than ₹150 per day more than doubled. The Pew report...

-Financial Express While wheat prices may firm up once the official procurement begins in all the producing states, the government will have to implement a robust procurement system for other crops to support the prices fetched by farmers. Mandi prices of most rabi crops ruled below their minimum support prices (MSPs) during the last month, even as more than half of the winter crop has been harvested (see chart). While wheat prices...

-The Indian Express All 2,214 oxygen beds were occupied over Friday and Saturday in the district, where the positivity rate was 43.8 per cent in the closing days of March. Of a total 15,484 active cases, 4,600 are under home isolation. Aurangabad: A SEVERE shortage has sent the prices of oxygen cylinders soaring across Maharashtra. Aurangabad, where the positivity rates were the highest in the state March-end, is particularly hard hit, with...