-Frontline.in The government uses specious arguments on COVID deaths and recoveries in comparison with other countries to cover up for its ill-thought-out strategies. On June 1, while briefing the media, the Joint Secretary (Health), Lav Agarwal, presented several PowerPoint graphs showing how India’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic was on a par with, if not better than, many countries vis-a-vis mortality and recovery rates. This was on a day when the number...

-Hindustan Times A detailed action plan for this purpose has already been chalked out, they added, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi may even raise the issue in his meeting with chief ministers on Tuesday and Wednesday. New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government wants states that are seeing a large number of Covid-19 cases not to lose sight of the main objective in the rush of numbers -- keeping the death rate, or...

-The Hindu Business Line A central government committee will submit it’s report on 60% private beds to be reserved on loweR Rates After a major loss of face over exorbitant pricing of Covid-19 treatment by corporate-run Max Hospital in New Delhi, the healthcare chain has come up with a defence stating that per day treatment charges running into over a one lakh rupees a day, only apply to very critical Covid-19 patients. Please...

-Livemint.com From an already low base, women’s employment has fallen further, and a recovery will be difficult A clutch of early studies on the impact of the lockdown on employment is showing that women’s employment could be particularly badly hit. Given India’s record low female workforce participation rates, growing child care demands, and a looming recession, researchers fear that women could be increasingly shut out of the productive economy. To estimate the impact...

-TheWire.in While the increased allocation and attention is welcome, it will not be enough to counter the crisis. The current pandemic has led to loss of livelihood of substantial sections of the India population. With the economy, particularly production activities in the big urban centres, having come to a standstill, a process of reverse migration to villages took place. This decline in economic activities is taking place against a background of continuously...