-ThePrint.in The ICMR task force on Covid-19 hasn’t met in over two weeks, while the daily official statement now mentions only good news, not new cases or deaths. New Delhi: The last meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) on Covid-19, headed by Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, was held on 9 June. The last health ministry briefing on the coronavirus crisis took place two days later, on 11 June. The...

-The Indian Express That’s the actual liquidity pumped into rural areas by government post lockdown – through grain procurement, PM-Kisan and MGNREGA wages. There are many parallels one can draw between the novel coronavirus-induced lockdown (gharbandi) and demonetisation (notebandi), in terms of their impact on India’s farm economy. Both resulted in the same thing – demand destruction – albeit through different routes. Notebandi caused a haemorrhaging of liquidity from the predominantly cash-based farm...

-GaonConnection.com Recently the Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the auction of 41 coal mines for commercial mining in the country. Jharkand has already approached the Supreme Court opposing this move. Now, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra governments have written to the Union environment minister opposing the auction to protect its forests, a tiger reserve and a proposed elephant reserve Three days after the Jharkhand government approached the Supreme Court of India challenging the Centre’s...

-Down to Earth Distress among marginal farmers and unavailability of food to migrant labourers has been largely ignored in Union Government’s economic stimulus   Agriculture and allied activities are considered ‘essential’ and officially face no restriction to harvest and supply to the market, even in the middle of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. But an agrarian crisis stemming from systemic failures needs to be considered for immediate policy response. The current distress...

-The Hindu Efficacy of vaccine for CDV not known, data unavailable An outdated methodology and the true mortality from a virus affecting India’s lions dent the credibility of the Gujarat government’s claims on its lion population. In a press statement on Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar tweeted results of the 2020 Asiatic Lion Census that put the number of lions at 674, a 28% rise from...