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...

-The Telegraph The government has not institutionalized SAUs which are at times intimidated when it comes to Accessing data on various programmes The auditing agility of government programmes seems to have gained strength. After the recent floods in Assam, the state planned to carry out a social audit of relief measures to look into corruption and bribery. This is the first time that any government is trying to reinforce a social audit...

-Financial Express Only three crops -- groundnut, jowar and moong -- have recorded higher arrivals on year (see chart). Even in the case of jowar and moong, arrivals fell in the largest-producing states of Maharashtra (-39%) and Rajasthan (-7%), respectively. Amid the row over the three new federal farm laws aimed at giving unfettered market Access to farmers, the producers of various crops seem to have started to rely much less on...

-The Hindu There is a strong case to attribute a more robust responsibility to platform companies and the State The Code on Social Security Bill, 2020, for the first time in Indian law, attempted to define ‘platform work’ outside of the traditional employment category. It says: “Platform work means a work arrangement outside of a traditional employer-employee relationship in which organisations or individuals use an online platform to Access other organisations or...

-The Hindu City-based non-profit trains students to crack entrance exams to these institutions Bengaluru: Access to the national law universities (NLUs) in the country was earlier restricted to the well-heeled and students from big cities. However, the efforts of a city-based non-profit is helping bring diversity in these university campuses by ensuring that students from low socio-economic and disadvantaged backgrounds too get an opportunity to study in these institutions. Increasing Diversity by Increasing...