-RuralIndiaOnline.org Huge quantities of cash crops lie unsold across India &NDAsh; like cotton in Maharashtra. A hunger crisis looms, yet farmers in Vidarbha plan to sow cotton, not food crops, once again this kharif season Seventy-year-old Kisan Sakhru Pawar, patriarch of a joint farming family in Maharashtra’s Yavatmal district, is very anxious. The climbing Covid-19 graph is not the main reason for his anxiety. His concern: unsold cotton. “We have 350 quintals of cotton,...

-Hindustan Times The new guidelines make the testing criteria in Delhi tighter than those issued by the Indian Council of Medical Research on May 18. The Delhi government on Tuesday released a document underlining its new testing strategy which, counter-intuitively restricts the access to the tests further even as the number of cases in the state continue to grow. The new guidelines make the testing criteria in Delhi tighter than those issued by...

-TheWire.in As a fresh spotlight hits India's rural employment programme, two suggestions have been offered to “repurpose” MGNREGA to utilise the additional labour force that have returned to their villages. Due to the sudden lockdown and resultant job losses, over one crore people have returned to their homes, some walking hundreds of kilometres, others using all conceivable means of transport &NDAsh; buses, trucks, trailers, concrete mixers, Shramik trains, motorcycles, scooters, bicycles, auto...

-Scroll.in The petitioner, a lawyer, also demanded that the government appoint or nominate at least two members from opposition parties for transparency. The Centre on Tuesday requested the Bombay High Court to dismiss a petition seeking that the donations and expenditure of the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund, or PM CARES fund, &NDAsh; created to tackle the coronavirus pandemic &NDAsh; be made public, PTI reported. The petition, filed...

-Society for Social and Economic Research Monograph 20/3 Key Messages Lack of planning and preparation by the Central government for tackling the COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a massive blow to India’s economy and has caused enormous hardships to working people of the country. Harvesting of Rabi crops • Unplanned and sudden imposition of the lockdown resulted in a massive and unprecedented disruption to agricultural activities such as harvesting, sale of agricultural produce, and purchase...