-The Indian Express For July 1, the normative minimum stocks to run the targeted public distribution system (TPDS) and other welfare schemes, plus maintain a strategic reserve over and above that, are 27.58 mt of wheat and 13.54 mt of rice. Despite efforts at disposing of surplus foodgrains – including by distributing these free under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) and a special scheme for migrant labourers returning to...

Poisonous snakebites have killed more than a million Indians in the last two decades, finds a recently published article entitled Trends in snakebite mortality in India from 2000 to 2019 in a nationally representative mortality study. Published in the open access journal elifesciences.org, the research-based study has found that the country accounts for nearly half the total number of annual deaths in the world caused by snakebite envenoming. Who are the...

-Hindustan Times OPHI director Sabina Alkire, who led the development of the multidimensional poverty index (MPI) in 2010, said: “India remains the country that has the largest reduction in number of poor, with over 270 million persons leaving poverty 2005-6 to 2015-16”. India lifted as many as 270 million people out of multidimensional poverty between 2005-6 and 2015-16 – the most in a global study of 75 countries – reflecting progress before...

-Down to Earth Women adopted specific strategies to further their interests in the context of wheat-based livelihoods, challenging men as sole decision-makers, the study found Women in societies practicing wheat-based agriculture have started challenging the norm of men being sole decision-makers. They are transitioning from workers to innovators and managers, a recent study has found. Women were adopting specific strategies to further their interests in the context of wheat-based livelihoods, the study found....

-The Hindu Low level of RT-PCR re-testing in persons who are testing antigen negative will underestimate cases, says COVID-19 task force member Only 1 in 200 of those who tested negative in an antigen test in Delhi to detect possible coronavirus cases were re-tested, a fraction that epidemiologists say is too low given what is known about the disease. From June 25, daily cases appear to have peaked at 3,390 and steadily...