-The Wire Science Manika Bishunpur (Muzaffarpur, Bihar): Chunchun Devi stands alone in front of her hut in Manika Bishunpur village’s Mushahari tola in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district. Three of her children &NDAsh; two daughters and a son &NDAsh; are playing nearby. On June 11 last year, Chulhai Ram and Chunchun lost their 4.5-year-old daughter, Raveena, to acute encephalitis syndrome (AES), locally known as chamki fever. She was the third of Chulhai and Chunchun’s...

-Newsclick.in Two taxes &NDAsh; inheritance and wealth -- alone, levied only on the top 1% of the population, would be enough to fetch Rs.14.67 lakh crore. It is often believed that the ability to pass on property to one’s progeny is an essential element of capitalism, without which the capitalists’ incentives will dry up and the system will lose its dynamism. Nothing could be further from the truth; indeed the acquisition of...

A report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), which was released on July 6th (observed as World Zoonoses Day by research institutions and non-governmental organisations across the globe) this year, says that around 60 percent of known infectious diseases in humans are estimated to have an animal origin. Likewise, almost three-fourth of all new and emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic i.e. these diseases...

-TheWire.in The rise and fall of the biggest importers of edible oil in the world. ‘Freedom is the greatest fruit of self-sufficiency’ &NDAsh; Epicurus The COVID-19 pandemic has been detrimental for globalisation and has led to a clamour for protectionism. India’s national strategy is also in line with this trend with calls for ‘Atmanirbharta’ and ‘vocal for local’ increasing. Traditionally, India was an exporter of edible oil before Independence, became self-sufficient post-Independence (till the early 1970s),...

-Newsclick.in Double digit jobless rate, crashing women’s employment and absolute fall in number of employed have left people in th state devastated &NDAsh; and furious. Unemployment, it is often said, is death by a thousand cuts. It pushes families into hunger, snatches away children’s education, prevents medical care, and propels people into debt. And, if you are already poor and disadvantaged and living on the edge, unemployment is like a death sentence. A...