-TheWire.in Floods which are a recurring phenomenon in the northeast Indian state of Assam have hit the state heavily this year but healthcare workers have risen to the occasion serving the people by battling both flood and novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. The floods have affected around 2.9 million (29 lakh) people across 26 districts covering about 80 percent of Assam’s total area (till July 24). As many as 103 people have...

-National Herald The plea says the Centre failed to “undertake timely and effective measures for containing transmission of disease within India” despite being notified about the same by WHO in January, 2020. Six retired bureaucrats have moved the Supreme Court seeking an independent inquiry by a Commission appointed under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952, into the Central Government's "gross mismanagement" of the COVID-19 pandemic in India, legal news website LiveLaw.in has...

-The Indian Express Noor Jamal, 25, lives at Satrakanara village in Barpeta district, which is heavily flooded. “In the lockdown, I could not sell our produce of vegetables and jute. And now there is flood water in the paddy field, it will damage the crops,” he said. Guwahati: At Bhuragaon in Assam’s Morigaon district, adjacent to the Brahmaputra and severely affected in this year’s floods, two hectares of the paddy field of...

Although social activists and concerned economists demanded at least Rs. 1 lakh crore to be earmarked in favour of the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the Finance Minister in her budget speech on 1st February allocated only Rs.61,500 crore to it for the financial year 2020-21. As compared to the fund spent on MGNREGA in 2019-20 (i.e. revised estimate of Rs.71,001.81 crore), the amount set aside for the...

-IndiaSpend.com Bengaluru: As India deals with growing numbers of COVID-19 cases and the economic ramifications of the resultant lockdowns, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government has made a slew of announcements and promulgated ordinances to revive the economy, including the agriculture sector. It brought in the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion & Facilitation) Ordinance 2020, Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance 2020, and amended the...