-The Telegraph 'Wish there were announcements on government spending' Kolkata: Like many Indians, a young businessman keenly awaiting the fine print of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan (Self-reliant India Mission) placed himself before a television screen around 4pm on Wednesday. The businessman did not have to brush up his language skills to understand finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman but he came away with a sense of déjà vu. “I heard that I will...

-The Hindu The Delhi government stopped releasing yet another information on the COVID-19 outbreak in the city. The government on Thursday stopped sharing hospital-wise figures of COVID-19-related deaths in the city, in a daily health bulletin. The government spokesperson did not comment on the reason why the data is not provided. “The total number of deaths sent by hospitals is being audited and it will be updated again once it is complete,”...

-TheWire.in An article critical of the government's response to COVID-19 was published on The New Indian Express's website on May 8, and disappeared from its link within a day. Last week, The New Indian Express, one of India’s major English newspapers, pulled down an article that was heavily critical of the Centre’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak. The article, entitled ‘Centre’s COVID-19 Communication Plan: hold back data, gag agencies and scientists’, discussed...

-TheWire.in Why do some COVID apps prefer to shun location tracking altogether and some don't? The mobile phone seems to be an important weapon in the fight against COVID-19. Phone apps that track location – basically, latitude, longitude at a specific time – and send this information to health authorities live are being deployed to ensure that phone owners remain within quarantine zones. A different use simply records the location trail over a...

-Hindustan Times Flood-based irrigation in Haryana, Punjab a threat to groundwater which is depleting over 3 feet every year Chandigarh: Breaking the traditional wheat-paddy cycle is the need of the hour to preserve groundwater for the future generations, reveals a research conducted by scientists of the Central Soil Salinity Research Institute (CSSRI), Karnal (Haryana). Asserting that the rice crop alone consumes about 50% of the total irrigation water, the researchers have suggested radical...